Reserva: The Youth Land Trust is a U.S.-based nonprofit that places young people at the front line of biodiversity conservation. Founded on the principle that youth have both the right and the responsibility to protect the natural world, Reserva supports youth-led campaigns to create and expand protected areas in some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth.
Reserva’s flagship project is the Dracula Youth Reserve in Ecuador’s Carchi Province — a cloud-forest corridor that Reserva and its partner Fundación EcoMinga have protected from gold mining, most recently adding 1,050 acres of primary forest to the reserve. Other recent, fully-funded campaigns include protecting 1,054 acres of Colombian rainforest for the critically endangered Caquetá titi monkey (Plecturocebus caquetensis), supporting youth-led leatherback turtle tracking in Panama’s Pearl Islands with The Leatherback Project, and a successful international campaign that helped stop a luxury hotel development on Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles. Reserva’s story is featured in the HHMI Tangled Bank Studios / PBS Nature documentary “Wild Hope,” and the organization has been recognized as a 2023 Jackson Wild Finalist in Conservation, Long Form.
Reserva is governed by a Youth Council, supported by a Board and Scientific Advisors, and partners with conservation organizations around the world.
