YSL Beauty expands rewilding initiative

French luxury cosmetics brand YSL Beauty has announced two new rewilding projects in partnership with global non-government organisation Re:Wild as part of its ongoing commitment to help nature return to its wild state.

Due to climate change and extensive human utilisation of nature’s surfaces, the wild is in decline, with almost 75 percent of all wild places having been degraded and more than 1 million species at the brink of extinction. More than 50 percent of the remaining wild will disappear in the next decades if immediate action is not taken, explains YSL Beauty.

As part of its ‘Rewild Our Earth’ programme, YSL Beauty aims to protect and restore 100,000 hectares of wilderness by 2030, a surface area almost 10 times the size of Paris, to safeguard biodiversity in threatened priority areas.

To push forward the initiative, the L'Oréal-licensed company is funding new projects in partnership with Re:Wild in two of the world’s biodiversity hot spots in Colombia and the Bahamas. This adds to its activity in Morocco, Haiti, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Canada, where it has revitalised more than 47,000 hectares and supported local partners to plant more than 422,000 trees.

In the Bahamas, the rewilding team will help to protect and restore the habitat for the critically endangered White Cay Iguanas. With approximately 150 species left, the Whit Cay Iguana is one of the most endangered lizards on the earth. The programme will focus on protecting and restoring the White Cay wetlands by working with local communities and partners to develop species conservation action plans and support restoration methods tailored to local context and capacity.

While in Colombia, the brand is helping to restore 3,579 hectares of buffer areas within the Colombian Chiribiquete and La Paya National Parks in the heart of the Amazon.

Penny Langhammer, executive vice president of Re:wild, said in a statement: “The health of our planet and our wellbeing depend on the wild; we are all connected to the natural world. Through this long-term collaboration with YSL Beauty, we will advance our efforts to protect and restore the Earth’s most irreplaceable areas for diversity.”