YSL Beauty Announces Two New "Rewild Our Earth" Programs

Locals take part in YSL Beauty & Re:Wild’s Morrocco Project: YSL Beauty has worked throughout the Ourika Valley region since 2017 to plant trees and restore arid land, so far planting over 125,000 trees

In continuity of its global initiative “Rewild Our Earth”, YSL Beauty announces two new rewilding programs in partnership with global NGO Re:wild, thus reinforcing its broader commitment to making a positive impact on the planet and its people.

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

Conscious of this urgency, the YSL Beauty’s Rewild Our Earth program aims to protect and restore 100,00 hectares of wilderness by 2030 – a surface area that is almost 10 times the size of Paris – to safeguard biodiversity in threatened priority areas that inspires us and where our ingredients flourish.

A commitment to the Earth lies at the heart of the YSL Beauty brand, inspired by the legacy of M. Saint Laurent, a nature lover who drew inspiration from the natural wonders of Morocco throughout his career.

 Since 2014, YSL Beauty has worked in Morocco to help empower local communities through the Ourika Community Gardens. Inspired by the brand’s longstanding involvement in Morocco, the Rewild Our Earth initiative began in 2017 in the Atlas Mountains and the Ourika Valley in Morocco and has since restored and protected areas through four additional programs in Haiti, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Canada and is today launching two new programs in the Bahamas and Colombia.

In line with the brands engagements, this project is inscribed within the brand’s sustainability strategy, known as ‘Change the Rules, Change the Future’, which is built on 3 key pillars: (1) Reduce Our Impact; (2) Rewild Our Earth; and (3) Abuse is Not Love.

Penny Langhammer, Executive VP of Re:wild, says “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.”

 Rewild Our Earth is bedded in the knowledge that rewilding is an innovative approach to conservation based on a progressive effort to enable natural processes, repair damaged ecosystems, and restore degraded landscapes; in other words, to help nature return to its wild state.

The program has therefore engaged in the protection and rewilding of diverse natural ecosystems essential for the planet’s biodiversity. Encompassing a spectrum of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, from forests to; grasslands, deserts to wetlands.

 Since 2017 and by the end of 2023, Rewild Our Earth has not only protected but revitalized an expanse of 47,351 hectares worldwide, comprising endangered ecosystems and has supported local partners to plant more than 422,000 trees, representing a stride towards improved environmental resilience in these at-risk areas.

In partnership with Re:wild, a world-renowned non-governmental organization that works with more than 500 conservation partners around the world to advance biodiversity conversation and ecological restoration globally, YSL Beauty Is funding two new programs.

White Cay iguana

These new rewilding projects have been launched in the Bahamas and Colombia, two critical areas for biodiversity, and are among the most threatened natural zones in the world.

In the Bahamas, the rewilding team is helping to protect and restore the habitat for the critically endangered White Cay Iguanas.

With approximately 150 species left, the White Cay Iguana is one of the most endangered lizards on the earth. The program 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. These conservation methods will be monitored and evaluated to share key learnings with other islands working to conserve related iguanas.

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.