EXPLORE WILD HOPE

Some advocates hope this is the start of more sweeping protections for the environment. In the mountains of northern Ecuador, the Los Cedros Protected Forest is home to howler monkeys and spectacled bears, a stunning array of birds and frogs, and species of orchid found nowhere else. And this rainforest is special in another way: […]

Since the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, it has become one of the most powerful tools to fight extinction in the United States.

Protecting "rights of nature" is a legal movement that recognizes ecosystems have fundamental rights, including the right to exist, evolve, and thrive without interference from human-caused harms like pollution and resource extraction.

Young volunteers from the Reserva Youth Land Trust are exploring the jungles of Ecuador to survey, photograph, and identify species—and to help protect their right to exist.

The Reserva Land Trust has rallied together young people from across 25 countries to create the world’s first youth-funded nature reserve in Ecuador.

Ecuador is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet— and the first country in the world to enshrine the “rights of nature” in its constitution.

Young environmental activists scored what experts described as a ground-breaking legal victory when a Montana judge said state agencies were violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by allowing fossil fuel development.

Natalia Greene is a political scientist with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN). She promoted the recognition of the Rights for Nature in Ecuador’s Constitution and has worked on environmental and Indigenous aspects of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative to keep oil underground in the Amazon. She was previously the president, and is currently […]

The rights of nature movement extends far beyond Ecuador, with advocates seeking and securing legal protections for wild spaces in communities, cities, and countries around the world. Biodiversity loss is local, and so are the solutions to this crisis.