High Country Running: Run for the rainforest

For those of us who run outside, nature has given us a lot — from beautiful scenery to secluded spaces to the oxygen we breathe (especially important at high altitude). Natural spaces are important to us, and many of them need to be conserved in today’s era of global development.

In 2021, youth from around the world set out to combine two passions: running and conservation. The idea was to raise money and awareness to protect the Dracula Youth Reserve in the Ecuadorian cloud forest, named after the rare Dracula orchid that lives there, by running and then posting videos or photos to get others to do the same.