Declared November 2023
Manacacias National Park, Colombia 
 135,000 acres, 54,600 hectares

Partners: National Parks of Colombia, Wyss Foundation, Re:wild, the Nature Conservancy, Artist Carol Bove, Amazon Forest Fund, Andes Amazon Fund, WWF, Minister of Environment

Art into Acres is an artist-run, non-profit environmental initiative. Founded in 2017, with an initial donation by Life Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art Agnes Gund, the non-profit supports large-scale land conservation with a focus on climate, Indigenous peoples and beta-diversity. The initiative is stewarding the new, permanent conservation of 30.2 million acres of tropical and boreal forests with support by artists, galleries and institutions, in collaboration with matching funds partners. The protection type includes the creation of new National Parks, Regional Parks, Indigenous Reserves and a range of International Union for Conservation of Nature 1a and 1b reserves in the form of land trusts and civil associations. The work includes project selection, due diligence reviews, funding, matching funds arrangements, quarterly meetings with partners, protected area declaration audits and donor education. Supporters receive the documents, grant audits, maps and photos for the funded projects to further their education and thinking. Legal, administrative and travel costs are funded by the nonprofit advisory board and conservation partners; all donations are restricted to land conservation.

Art to Acres serves artists and art institutions interested in supporting internationally recognized permanent old-growth (or original-growth) land conservation projects. Locations are assessed for scale, intactness, below and above-ground carbon significance, biodiversity significance, post-declaration management, connectivity to other conserved areas for migration corridors and community requests following a two-year or greater due diligence period. The organization works with a series of national and international partners. Projects have an implementing team of two or more conservation non-profit partners per location -- with all projects led by local leadership and U.S. supporting partners led by Re:wild; the initiative's primary conservation partner. The organization's international conservation efforts include work in North America, Central America, and South America. The majority of engaged projects are indigenous reserves or national and regional designation projects.

This is pro-active permanent forest conservation supporting indigenous communities declaring the permanent protected area (or governments supporting this depending on land tenure) or supporting National Park declaration -- both grant avenues fund the legal support, biodiversity surveys, land tenure surveys, mapping, signage, formal declaration and a management support endowment. This designation is at the request of the indigenous communities who live on the land. A minority of projects are land-purchase projects. This is at times necessary for carbon, migration, connectivity and biodiversity reasons in countries where there is competition from pending conversion animal agriculture, monoculture or timber harvest use, wherein, the land is purchased at market cost for conservation and protected in concurrent mechanisms: privately held in local title by a land trust set up for the location, permanent national or regional declaration status, registration in National conserved places (or equivalent), easement held by a local conservation organization, and lastly, the carbon rights of the parcel are recalled and re-endowed to the location, as such the land cannot be sold without that mineral entity. These protection mechanisms, in addition to land ownership, arrive at solid conservation status. Locally-led, locally-directed and locally-requested conservation is the focus of this work. Land conservation best practices and approaches are different in each country, language and legal support system. No two conservation projects are the same and all benefit from introspection, patience, inclusivity and dialogue. The funds raised herein support diverse communities in conserving the lands on which they have historically lived.

Completed Projects

Bolivia: Bajo Paraguá Municipal Protected Area: 983,006 hectares, 2,429,061 acres
Bolivia: Bajo Paraguá-Concepción Municipal Conservation Area: 154,368 hectares, 381,452 acres
Peru: Yavari Tapiche Indigenous Reserve: 1,092,651 hectares, 2,700,000 acres
Peru: Chuyapi Urusayhua Regional Conservation Area: 80,191 hectares, 198,156 acres
Ecuador: Quilanga Municipal Conservation Area: 10,632 hectares, 26,273 acres
Ecuador: Espíndola Municipal Protected Area: 16,538 hectares, 40,866 acres
Australia: The Lakes National Park: 35,300 hectares, 87,228 acres
Australia: Brindingabba National Park: 40,469 hectares, 100,000 acres
United States: Burma Rim, Oregon: 36,582 hectares, 90,397 acres
United States: Mt. Diablo, Oregon: 48,074 hectares, 118,794 acres
United States: Pueblos Mountains and Trout Creek Wilderness, Oregon: 124,238 hectares, 307,000 acres
Belize: Maya Corridor Land Trust: 12,082 hectares, 29,856 acres
Ecuador: Aguarico Water Protection Area Area: 254,519 acres
Australia: Richardson National Park: 131,900 hectares, 325,932 acres

In-Process Projects

Bolivia: Suapi Municipal Protected Area
Bolivia: Ilampu Municipal Protected Area
Bolivia: Guanay and Teoponte Municipal Conservation Areas
Bolivia: El Torno and Porongo Municipal Conservation Areas
Canada: Northern Yukon Indigenous Protected Area
Colombia: Choco Cocomacia Community Conservation Area
Colombia: Serrania Reserve
Colombia: Cabí-Ichó Corridor Regional Protected Area
Colombia: Cerro del Duende Regional Protected Area
Ecuador: Morona Santiago Province-Level Conservation Areas System
Ecuador: Rio Negro Sopladora National Park
Nicaragua: Awaltara Indigenous Conservation Area
Peru: Osomayo - Milpo Regional Conservation Area
Peru: Medio Putumayo
Suriname: Southern Indigenous Reserves
Chile: Cape Froward National Park
Colombia: Manacacias National Park
Colombia: Cuchilla de San Juan Regional Protected Area expansion
Ecuador: Yanuncay Zhucay Municipal Conservation Area
Ecuador: Sevilla de Oro Municipal Reserve
Ecuador: Loja Municipal Reserves
Ecuador: Sucúa Municipal Conservation Area
Guatemala: Cerro Amay National Protected Ares
Peru: Cutervo Regional Conservation Area

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Artist Partners

The initiative has supported conservation through the donations of artwork by key international cultural producers: Chloe Wise, Ahmet Civelek, Zaria Forman, David Adamo, Rosemary Laing, Nathlie Provosty, Alain Richard, Shirazeh Houshiary, Darren Bader, Alex Hubbard, Joe Andoe, Isabella Kirkland, Tiffany Bozic, Loie Hollowell, Keltie Ferris, Camille Henrot, Rashid Johnson, George Condo, Ed Ruscha donated by Agnes Gund, Anicka Yi, Max Hooper Schneider, The Haas Brothers, Anish Kapoor, Idris Khan, Olivier Mosset, Ben Thorp Brown, David Altmejd, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Jaeger, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Wyatt Kahn, Louis Eisner, Jacob Kassay, Robert Longo, Mungo Thomson, Cheyney Thompson, Sterling Ruby, The Haas Brothers, Korakrit Arunanondchai, G.T. Pellizi, Leelee Kimmel, Jonas Wood, Ann Craven, Emily Mae Smith, Jenny Holzer, Jackson Pollock donated by Justus Striebich, Dana Schutz, Rashid Johnson, Shawn Demarest, Julian Charrière and Carol Bove.

Museum, Gallery and Institutional Partners

The non-profit has supported conservation in collaboration with the following individuals, galleries, institutions and museums: Alex Berggruen Gallery, Casey Kaplan Gallery, Charles Moffett Gallery, Château Shatto Gallery, David Zwirner Gallery, Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Fraenkel Gallery, Frank Elbaz Gallery, Grimm Gallery, Hannah Hoffman, Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Heroes Gallery, James Cohan Gallery, Jessica Silverman Gallery, Kate MacGarry Gallery, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Parker Gallery, PPOW Gallery, De Young Museum, German Environmental Authority, Guggenheim New York, Hamburger Kunsthalle Museum, Henry Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Bonn Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Museum of Modern Art PS1, San Jose Museum of Art, ARTA Shipping, ArtForum Magazine, Barder.art, California College of Art, K21 Collection by Kanon, Sandy Heller Advisory, Sutton Communications, Striebich Collection, Zlot Buell Advisory, Alison Valentine Studio, Andrew Kachel, Davide Balula Studio, In honor of Don Carr, In honor of Donald Moffett, In honor of Elaine T. Ault, Erin M. Riley Studio, In honor of Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Jonah Jacobs Studio, Kai Patricio, Kara J. Shaw, Maddie Rose Hills, N. Dash Studio, In honor of Dr. Nelson Bingham, Nicholas Cinque, Robin Williams Studio, Zaria Forman Studio, Tate Modern Museum, Tate London Museum.

Philanthropic Partnerships with Private Foundations

Partnerships with private foundations for matching funds is core to our capacity to engage the cultural community in conservation. All artwork donations are restricted to matching funds agreements. The non-profit overhead and operating costs are paid for by the nonprofit's board of advisors. As a part of the organization's commitment to the sustainability of the cultural sector. Art into Acres fiscally sponsors Art + Climate Action, Artists Commit, Barder.art, and the Gallery Climate Coalition.

Strategic Climate Funds

Strategic Climate Funds can be contributed through our partnership with Galleries Commit, on this website's Strategic Climate Funds page or by conserving land at Conserve, which is a beta project of Art into Acres. For a white paper on Strategic Climate Funds as an approach in place of carbon offsets, please read here.