What if local communities bought land simply to protect it? What if they created practical, replicable models for conservation rooted in addressing local needs, repairing past harms and safeguarding ecosystems from industrial exploitation?
Read on to meet a few communities who are turning these visions into realities. Only have a few minutes, but want to take action now? Scroll down to tell oil companies that you oppose oil and gas leasing in the Arctic.
A Former Slave Plantation Becomes a Community Forest
Welcome to Freedom Land Community Forest, 305 acres in South Carolina that have come to symbolize the powerful intersection of environmental conservation and social justice. Learn how our partners at Dogwood Alliance and the New Alpha Community Development Corporation simultaneously protected this land from logging threats and created a healing site for descendants of historically exploited Indigenous and enslaved peoples.
Protecting Land for the Next Generation of Farmers
Across the United States, skyrocketing farmland costs have sidelined the next generation of farmers. In response, The Farmers Land Trust has developed a model that not only helps new farmers get into the game at affordable rates but also protects the land itself.
Learn more about how the conservation model works in a new film published by The Farmers Land Trust and BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions.
In 2022, when nearly 329,000 acres in Chile's Cochamó Valley and the surrounding area was put up for auction alongside beachfront mansions and investment properties, the folks at Conserva Puchegüín rolled up their sleeves to stop it. The coalition of conservation groups, scientists and community members—with an assist from Patagonia’s Holdfast Collective— raised funds to purchase the land in 2025.
Their big development plan? Protect it from development forever.
A Bureau of Land Management lease sale for oil and gas drilling recently received bids on over 1 million acres of pristine landscapes in the Western Arctic. The Arctic Refuge is next. Despite knowledge that these lands may never produce oil and that it would take years to reach market if they did, the lease sales go on. Take action today with our partners at the Alaska Wilderness League to make it loud and clear to oil companies that drilling in the Arctic is a reputational risk.
Photos: (Top) Closing the day at Campo Aventura, with the granite domes of Cerro Trinidad in the background. Cochamó Valley, Chile. RODRIGO MANNS (Middle) The new Freedom Land Community Forest. COURTESY OF DOGWOOD ALLIANCE (Middle) Blue Rock Farmland Commons. COURTESY OF THE FARMERS LAND TRUST (Middle) The famous “Los Toboganes” (The Slides) next to the main campsites in La Junta are an iconic, if frigid, swimming hole. Cochamó Valley, Chile. RODRIGO MANNS (Bottom) One of the oil drill pads at the edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, just west of the Canning River delta. FLORIAN SCHULZ