Creating The World’s First Entirely
Youth-Funded Reserve
in Ecuador’s Chocó Rainforest
Thanks to generous support from our donors, we have successfully reached our fundraising goal for this project!
Raised: $178,296
Goal: $178,296
Rainforest Trust is proud to partner with Reserva: The Youth Land Trust on an ambitious project to prove that young people around the world not only have a voice, but financial power—and they will wield it for the planet if offered the platform. Alongside in-country partner Fundación EcoMinga, the organizations aim to create the world’s first entirely youth-funded nature reserve. This 244-acre site will be the first purchase in a planned 1,219-acre expansion of the Dracula Reserve in Ecuador’s Chocó Rainforest.
Biodiversity
The global Chocó-Tumbes biodiversity hotspot lies between the Andes and the Pacific in western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. This area is one of the world’s most unique biodiversity zones, and yet only 2% of the Chocó in Ecuador remains intact. The area is mainly primary foothill forest and cloud forest, and about 10% pasture. This property protects low-elevation forest, which the adjacent protected area, Dracula Reserve, is currently lacking. Safeguarding this site will not only protect at-risk species, but also help to create a wildlife corridor between two disjointed parcels of the existing Dracula Reserve.
Fast Facts
Location: Ecuador
Size/Acres: 244-acre expansion of a planned 1,219-acre reserve
Key Species: Ecuadorian Brown-headed Spider Monkey (CR), Rio Faisanes Stubfoot Toad (CR), Carchi Andes Toad (EN), Black-and-Chestnut Eagle (EN), Terborch’s Dracula, New-to-science Blue-eyed Robber Frog
Habitat: Low-elevation forest, cloud forest
Local Partner: Fundación EcoMinga
Financial Need: $178,296
Price per Acre: $730.72
Metric Tons Carbon Storage: 1,420,000
This site is home to iconic species like the Ocelot and Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth and rare species like the Endangered Black-and-Chestnut Eagle and the Critically Endangered Brown-headed Spider Monkey. The property also contains many local endemics — species found nowhere else in the world — including several new-to-science species, including a blue-eyed Pristimantis frog and the Dracula Anole. The proposed reserve is the only known site in Ecuador for the Endangered Carchi Andes Toad, and one of only two known sites in the world for the Critically Endangered Rio Faisanes Stubfoot Toad, once thought extinct.
Challenges
The proposed reserve land is under threat of residential and commercial development, as well as land transformation for plantations and livestock ranching. For-profit logging is a regular occurrence in the region. Flora and fauna are at risk of competition with invasive species, and diseases like the chytrid fungus can decimate frog populations.
Solutions
Rainforest Trust, Reserva: The Youth Land Trust and local partner Fundación EcoMinga have raised $178,296 in funding to purchase this property, and it has been raised entirely through the support of people 26 years old and younger.
Every $1 you donated to save habitat in Ecuador was matched with $1 through our SAVES Challenge. Your gift had DOUBLE the impact!
Habitat for Hundreds of Species Protected
Every Donation
Matched
30+ Years of
Conservation
Successes
34 Million +
Acres Saved
WHY SAVE RAINFOREST?
- Rainforests produce between 20-30% of the world’s oxygen.
- 70% of the known cancer fighting plants exist only in the rainforest.
- The majority of the world’s plants and animals are found in rainforests.
- Deforestation releases more carbon than the entire global transportation sector each year.
Protecting the most threatened tropical forests.
Our unique, cost-effective conservation model for protecting endangered species has been implemented successfully for over 30 years. Protection requires swift action, and we implement scientifically-based conservation plans that are not only timely, but also resilient and sustainable. With your support, we work tirelessly to permanently protect rainforests and other vital habitats throughout the world.
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PHOTO CREDITS:
Header: background landscape photo by Jorge Brito.
Header: Pristimantis Frog by Juan Pablo Reyes.
Header: Black Spider Monkey by Hans De Bisschop.
Header: Dracula Anole photo by Jorge Brito.
