WATCH
Youth Action on Screen—Short Film Features Reserva, EcoMinga, and Dracula Reserve
28 mins • A film by HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, Part2Pictures, and Wild Elements now streaming on PBS.org and PBS Nature YouTube
This new documentary features Reserva’s unique collaboration with Fundación EcoMinga to save Ecuador's Dracula Reserve from gold mining. The film is bringing this critical issue to light online and in festivals now, as a 2023 Jackson Wild Finalist in Conservation, Long Form; 2023 World Wildlife Day Film Showcase Official Selection; DC Environmental Film Festival Official Selection; EcoAdor Official Selection (Ecuador); and EDOC Official Selection (Ecuador). A Spanish version of the film will be coming soon!
PROJECT COMPLETE
DRACULA RESERVE CORRIDOR EXPANDED BY 1,050 ACRES
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! This 1,050-acre cloud forest site in Ecuador, once threatened imminently by mining interests, is now protected by our partners Fundación EcoMinga. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who made this youth-led campaign successful!
WHAT NEXT? While the land purchase is complete, Reserva will continue to fight mining activity and support youth leadership in science and conservation at Dracula Youth Reserve and the wider Dracula Reserve corridor.
RESERVA EMPOWERS YOUNG PEOPLE TO MAKE A MEASURABLE DIFFERENCE FOR THREATENED SPECIES AND HABITATS THROUGH CONSERVATION, EDUCATION, AND STORYTELLING.
We create youth-funded nature reserves around the globe, starting with this one:
Click here to learn about Dracula Youth Reserve in Ecuador, our flagship project!
Want to do more? Write a letter for our 1 Million Letters campaign! We will match every letter we receive with $3 toward a youth-led conservation project.
Read our latest field notes:
Fifty years ago, world leaders met in Stockholm for the world’s first international conference devoted to the environment. This meeting led to the landmark Stockholm Declaration and the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme, the body that oversees all UN work related to the environment. To commemorate the original Stockholm conference and the last fifty years of environmental governance, the United Nations General Assembly voted to reconvene for “Stockholm+50.”
Orchid Conservation Alliance’s first-ever Orchid Conservation Symposium showcased conservation and research of the orchids of Ecuador and Colombia. In a day packed with presentations with over 100 live viewers, we particularly enjoyed seeing the fantastic work of our friends, Lou Jost and Youth Council member Marco Monteros from Fundación EcoMinga.
Ecuadorian conservationist, biologist, and educator Javier Robayo was recognized today as one of “The Explorers Club 50: Fifty People Changing the World the World Needs to Know About” (“EC50”). Since 1904, The Explorers Club has supported scientific expeditions of all disciplines, including several “famous firsts”—first to the North Pole, South Pole, summit of Mt. Everest, deepest point in the ocean, and surface of the moon—and the work of household names including Jane Goodall, Theodore Roosevelt, Buzz Aldrin, and Sylvia Earle.
The recent, rapid rise of the youth environmental movement has been well documented, with young people being increasingly recognised as ever more influential agents of change in the political space. But did the so-called ‘global youth’ receive this same level of recognition at one of history’s most pivotal climate conferences, COP26? Last November, I was lucky enough to join some of my fellow Reserva team members at the conference to get involved with the action and see for myself.
Today we said goodbye to half of the Herp Team as Juanito and Mario were headed three hours away to Altotambo in search of other exciting finds. We didn’t know it at the time, but this was, unfortunately, the last we would see of Mario before we left Ecuador. Though Callie, Natalia, and Javier had left early that morning to go inspect a potential new property to add to Dracula Reserve, the rest of the expedition team lined the dirt road in front of the campsite and waved goodbye.
Callie and I had fallen asleep late after a midnight photoshoot with Dipsas elegans and awoke to the sound of the song “Angel Exterminador” by Ilegales and Miguel showing off his vocal skills in the shower before our alarm could even go off. We had breakfast at 7:30 with the now expanded team, including Marco, Gaby, and Rolando, whom we had all met the day before.
What do clothes and chocolate have to do with each other? Well, for one thing, the color of the water in which our clothes from the first week in the field had soaked overnight could really only be described as that of dark chocolate. In warp speed, as to not outlast our held breaths, Javier and I transferred over these “chocolate” soaked clothes to the washing machine at Casa Dracula.
Our last morning at the Peñas Blancas campsite began with our now-routine activities of drone flying and bird monitoring. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day, and Callie took advantage of the good conditions to give Milton and Geovanny an impromptu lesson with “Bebecito,” EcoMinga’s new DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone while Javier opened the mist nets.
Day five started with our customary drone flight from the abandoned pasture above camp, filling our memory cards with blankets of dripping green, billowing clouds, and a beautiful cascade of two twin waterfalls nestled deep in the hidden jungle. The morning conditions and the associated soft light set the ideal stage for sending our drone, affectionately-dubbed “Bebecito,” to the sky. After our perfectly timed flight, both maximizing flight time and ensuring that Bebecito made it back to camp (rather than crash landing and requiring a search mission … *foreshadowing*), we joined Javier and Daniel Valencia in opening two perpendicular mist nets along the forest edge.
We started off our fourth morning by joining Javier for the first early session of mist-netting, which is essential to monitor both the diversity and the health of the birds on our site. The previous afternoon, Daniel Valencia and Milton, with help and instruction from Javier, had cleared a path and installed two 2.4 m high, 12 m long, mist nets (very fine nets to catch birds for scientific research) at the forest edge of the clearing above camp.
This morning was our first at the Peñas Blancas field camp, a 50 meter2 tarp-covered clearing within “Dracula Youth Reserve,” the site we have been fundraising to protect through Reserva all year. Raised above a nearby stream (our water source while at camp) and 20 meters below a recovering pasture, our field camp provided the perfect combination of running water, elevated clear space for drone flying, and breathtaking views of the surrounding pristine cloud forest.
After staying indoors for over six months because of the Covid-19 Pandemic, I could hardly believe my eyes when I opened them on our first morning in Carchi. Callie, Pearson, Javier, and I had each been given our own rooms in the beautiful wooden construction of Casa Dracula, a luxury that we would only have for this first night of our expedition.
While our first day got off to an early start (5 am departure from Quito), it took until the early afternoon before it fully settled in that I was actually in a foreign country again. After all, trips to the grocery store had become rare in 2020, let alone expeditions to far off lands.
What does nature mean to me? What doesn’t nature mean to me? Nature is my everything. Nature is my sanctuary, my playground, my study, my place of physical and mental rebirth, my place of infinite knowledge and discovery. Nature is my second mother. Nature is where I was raised, where I was nurtured, where I learned the way the world works, and where I found myself in some of the greatest moments of living so far.
This particular drama starts with an ant. Or does it start with a mushroom—or is that where it ends? For cyclical mother nature, ends and beginnings don't really exist, and so I will start where I like, and that is with a spore.
A good night’s sleep in proper beds meant that Callie, Carter, and I awoke feeling refreshed on Friday, ready for our long drive back to Quito. But the general mood at Dracula House that morning was different to what it had been previously—Javier was tense, keen to get us out of Carchi province as early as possible to ensure our journey wasn’t compromised by any more blockaded roads or intensifying political demonstrations. We hurried to eat breakfast and gather together all of our belongings—clothes, camera kit, and all—that were strewn messily about the place.
It was raining when we woke up at 6AM, so instead of birding and drone-flying, we started gathering our scattered belongings and packing our tents. Callie’s black Pelican case was to be sent home early with the morning team of porters, so we had to make hard decisions about what camera equipment to do without for the day.
It was a bittersweet morning, as today was the day the Reserva Expedition team would be leaving camp for good. At least, that’s what we thought, right up until the moment we heard the dulcet tones of our trusty satellite telephone. It was a colleague from Chical, calling to deliver the news that strikes in the nearby town of Tulcán were escalating, and that many of the surrounding roads had been blockaded.
I woke up, and as I stood, the smell of smoke overwhelmed me. I thought that something had burned down, but thankfully it was just the fire that kept us warm in the night. I went to see if Lucy and Callie were awake, and much to my surprise, they were already out and about with Daniel, birding. I went outside and stood among the clouds for a bit, listening to nature, before taking out my drone to start collecting aerial photos of the campsite.
We awoke feeling a little worse for wear on Monday morning—our many hours spent traversing muddy slopes in torrential rain were finally beginning to take their toll on our poor muscles… It was excitement that would spur us on to tackle our next challenge: an 8 kilometre trek across some equally wet, slippery terrain to our newest base; a remote field station nestled in the heart of the Ecuadorian Chocó.
We woke up at 7:00 and went downstairs for rice and eggs We were able to speak to Javier about the day ahead and as usual, he was super excited. He explained to us that we were going to a beautiful river that ran with heavy water and spectacular creatures roaming around. We all got pumped up about the hike, immediately got our shoes and rain gear on, and hopped in the car.
Saturday was a particularly exciting one for the Reserva Expedition team. Following a spot of pre-breakfast birding, we’d follow a remote trail up to an elevation of almost 1,700 metres, eventually reaching the mountain ridge that runs along the upper edge of our site. The hike would provide us with our first intimate glimpse of the forest we’re working to protect and, more specifically, of the astounding array of life that it supports.
We woke up around 6:30 AM to a beautiful blue sky and the sun barely up behind the mountains. I had a great view of the east from my room, and loved every glimpse. We went down to have breakfast and had eggs, rice and some slices of pineapple with grape juice, then started our morning by going down to Chical where the previous night, a team had set up a museum for the local students.
A chilly, three o’clock start on Thursday morning would mark the beginning of the next part of our Ecuadorian adventure. Accompanied by our insanely enthusiastic expedition leader and partner Javier Robayo plus Ecuadorian Youth Council member Marco Monteros, Callie, Carter, and I were about to leave noisy, bustling city life behind and head 14 hours north, deep into the Chocó forest.
Breakfast was at 7:30 in the morning and so Lucy, Callie, and I were ready by eight to eat some corn and fruit (a hearty breakfast). We discussed our schedule for the day, and looking at it, we knew it was going to be an adventure.
THE RESERVA YOUTH COUNCIL
Reserva relies on an international group of active youth as project ambassadors and advisors. Co-founded by Youth Director Bella Lack (19, UK), the Youth Council now consists of more than 80 members from around the world. From Quito to Lahore, from London to Washington, D.C., as young as 8 years old and up to our “youth” cap of 26, these environmental change-makers share a common biophilia and a core belief in solution-based optimism. Meet the entire youth council here!
At the halfway point to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is more important than ever that youth contribute in high-level discussions to ensure our voices are heard. This was one of the many topics discussed at the 8th Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals at United Nations Headquarters in New York.