Recently completed: Quilanga, Loja, Ecuador; 26,273 acres. New protected area established May 2022.

Welcome 
Art into Acres (DBA Art to Acres) is an artist-run, non-profit environmental initiative. Founded by artist Haley Melin 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 28 million acres of tropical and boreal forests with support by artists, galleries and institutions, in colloaboration 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 of Art to Acres includes project selection, due diligence reviews, funding, matching funds arrangements, quarterly meeting 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 (A2A) 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 request 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 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. The minority of projects are land-purchase projects. This is at times necessary often 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.

Land conservation is a newer concept in human history. Listening, care and humility are all integrated into the process of engaging a diverse array of voices and supporting communities in conserving the lands on which they have historically lived. We support locally-led, locally-directed and locally-requested conservation. Land conservation best practices and approaches look different in each country, in each language and legal support system. Beyond the funding, diligence, legal and practical needs, we support local communities in discourse and in co-creating pathways to solutions. No two conservation projects are the same and all benefit from introspection, patience, inclusivity and dialogue.

Measurements below are in acres. For hectares, divide by 2.47

Completed Projects
Belize: Maya Corridor Land Trust: 29,856 acres
Bolivia: Bajo Paraguá Municipal Protected Area: 2,429,061 acres
Bolivia: Bajo Paraguá-Concepción Municipal Conservation Area: 381,452 acres
Peru: Yavari Tapiche Indigenous Reserve: 2,700,000 acres
Peru: Chuyapi Urusayhua Regional Conservation Area: 198,156 acres
Ecuador: Quilanga Municipal Conservation Area: 26,273 acres
Ecuador: Espíndola Municipal Protected Area: 40,866 acres
Australia: Richardson National Park: 325,932 acres
Australia: The Lakes National Park: 87,228 acres

In-Process Projects
Ecuador: Loja Municipal Reserves Area: 123,121 acres
Ecuador: Sevilla de Oro Municipal Reserve: 49,420 acres
Ecuador: Morona Santiago Province-Level Conservation Areas System: 617,750 acres
Canada: Northern Yukon Indigenous Protected Area: 2,000,000 acres
Colombia: Choco Cocomacia Community Conservation Area: 1,500,000 acres
Colombia: Manacacias National Park: 136,000 acres
Colombia: Serrania Reserve: 1,000,000 acres
Colombia: Cabí-Ichó Corridor Regional Protected Area; 39,630 acres
Guatemala: Cerro Amay: 30,000 acres
Nicaragua: Awaltara Indigenous Conservation Area: 372,000 acres
Suriname: Southern Indigenous Reserves: 18,000,000 acres
United States: Burma Rim, Oregon: 90,397 acres
United States: Mt. Diablo, Oregon: 118,794 acres
United States: Pueblos Mountains and Trout Creek Wilderness, Oregon: 307,000 acres
Australia: Brindingabba National Park: 100,000 acres
Bolivia: Suapi Municipal Protected Area; 6,875 acres
Bolivia: Ilampu, Municipal Protected Area; 4,238 acres
Colombia: Cerro del Duende Regional Protected Area; 224,000 acres 

Artworks
The initiative has supported conservation through the donations of artwork by artists:
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, and Carol Bove.

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

Matching Funds
100% of donated funds go to acreage conservation. Donated funds are graciously matched at 200% from partnering organizations: 100% to conservation biology research and 100% to land conservation from Global Wildlife Conservation and the Sheth Sangreal Foundation. The non-profit overhead and operating costs are paid by the nonprofit's board of advisors. As a part of the organization's commitment to community sustainability, Art into Acres fiscally sponsors Art + Climate Action, Artists Commit, Barder.art, and Gallery Climate Coalition.

Conserve this Acre
Strategic Climate Funds for exhibitions and studio carbon protection can be contributed through our partnership with Galleries Commit, on this website's Strategic Climate Funds page or by conserving land at Conserve this Acre, 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.