Thirty Years of Vision, Thirty Years of Results 

04/28/2026

Board Chair Charles J. Smith reflects on the foundation Ivan Gayler built — and what the next thirty years demand

By Charles J. Smith, Board Chair

There is a particular kind of person who looks at a disappearing forest and sees not just what is being lost, but everything that could still be saved. Ivan Gayler is that person. Thirty years ago, he had the audacity to believe that a small, determined organization could go to the most ecologically consequential landscapes on Earth — the cloud forests and river valleys of the Andes and Amazon — and actually turn the tide. 

He was right. 

The Founders Bet

When Ivan founded Nature and Culture International in 1996, the model he envisioned was as unconventional as it was clear-eyed. He was not interested in distant advocacy or feel-good gestures. He wanted to be on the ground, in partnership with local communities and governments, doing the hard and permanent work of protecting land, not for a decade, but forever. That insistence on permanence, on real and measurable outcomes, has defined the organization ever since. 

What strikes me most, looking back across thirty years, is how fully Ivan saw around corners. He understood before most that the Andes-Amazon Conservation Corridor was not simply a collection of beautiful places; it was a living system, an engine of rainfall, biodiversity, and climate stability that the world could not afford to lose. He understood that the most effective conservationists were often not the ones who flew in from the outside, but the local community leaders who had spent their lives in these landscapes. And he understood that if you built the right relationships, secured the right protections, and invested in the right people, the results would compound for generations. 

Not lines on a map

That vision has produced something remarkable. Over three decades, Nature and Culture has helped protect 26.8 million acres across Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and beyond in what are, by any measure, the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. Those are not abstract numbers. They represent rainforests, cloud forests, river corridors, deciduous dry forests, and high-altitude páramos that will continue to shelter life and stabilize our climate long after the rest of us are gone.

This work was accomplished through the patient, relationship-driven approach that Ivan modeled from the very beginning. The reserves and corridors we have established are not lines on a map. They are functioning ecosystems, home to species found nowhere else on Earth, sustained by communities who have chosen to be their stewards. 

The work ahead

None of this happened automatically. Conservation is slow, difficult, and often invisible work. There are setbacks, funding gaps, political headwinds, and years when the progress is hard to see. What has carried Nature and Culture through all of it is Ivan’s original conviction: that this work matters more than almost anything else we can do, and that, done with integrity and care, it lasts. 

As I reflect on this anniversary, I am grateful for the foundation Ivan built and for the extraordinary team that carries it forward today. I am also clear-eyed about the urgency of the moment. The forests we are racing to protect are under more pressure than ever. The next thirty years will demand the same bold, grounded, relentless commitment that Ivan bequeathed Nature and Culture at the inception. 

He showed us how. Now it is our turn.