Guanacos, South American relatives of the camel, migrate between summer breeding grounds and winter ranges. However, these migrations are threatened, with barriers on movement corridors. Livestock production can also lead to competition for essential resources like food and water. With your help, we’ve ensured a large share of guanacos in Argentina won’t face such barriers.

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Through a partnership between WCS Argentina, GreaterGood, Greater Good Charities, and other agencies, 100,000 acres of land that had been used for livestock production have now been donated to the Province of Mendoza to add onto La Payunia Provincial Reserve. This is thanks, in part, to your clicks, trivia participation, shopping for a cause, and direct donations.

The 1.6-million-acre reserve - the largest protected natural area in the province – is known for its more than 800 volcanic cones and plains, as well as species like the lesser rhea, the culpeo fox, the puma, the endangered Andean cat, and the Andean condor, which is endangered throughout much of South America and vulnerable in other areas.

It’s also home to the world’s largest guanaco migration, which requires large, connected habitats for feeding and reproduction. This donation protects their winter range.

WCS Argentina Director Mariano González Roglich says, "La Payunia is a gem of Argentina, Patagonia, and Mendoza. We have been working with the provincial government for over 20 years, spanning different administrations and achieving significant milestones like this one, which reaffirms the province’s commitment to nature conservation. It also reflects the importance of long-term collaborative work, to which Greater Good Charities and GreaterGood.com have contributed as donors."

WCS began conducting guanaco population surveys in the area in 2004. Nearly a decade later, the process of acquiring private land for donation to the provincial government began. Then, between 2018 and 2019, roughly 25,000 acres of private ranchland were purchased, while another nearly 80,000 acres were tacked onto the reserve by compensating retiring livestock producers for their grazing rights. The province pledged to keep that land, which serves as summer breeding habitat for the guanaco, protected from future livestock production.

With both winter and summer range now protected, the 25,000 to 40,000 guanacos that travel between these sites each year can move freely between them.

With livestock out of the way, predators like the endangered Andean cat and the puma won’t face retaliatory killings, either, when a goat or a cow is taken.

Greater Good Charities Executive Vice President Bryna Donnelly says, “This contribution reflects our deep commitment to habitat sustainability and restoration as well as species protection. We love that the land will be publicly available for future generations. We look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have on the ecosystem for years to come."

Speaking of this project in the past, GreaterGood CEO Tim Kunin echoed these sentiments, saying, “So much of wildlife protection seems to be about helping an individual animal, but the way that you protect animals long-term is to protect the habitats that provide the space for wild animals to be preserved and to have enough genetic diversity, particularly among predators, so it can’t be small areas because there won’t be a large enough area for a diverse group of predators to have a genetic diversity over time… You need expansive areas to be able to do that.”

The years-long effort to protect this expansive area was made possible thanks to you. We couldn’t have done it without you! Keep scrolling to see photos from the area.