Countdown to Earthx2027 in Dallas: 207 days · April 20 to 22 · Hilton Anatole
From the Arctic to Patagonia
Conservation in the Americas tells the stories of the people restoring reefs, forests, rivers and migration corridors across North, Central and South America. We start at home in Texas and Mexico, where Dallas has become a meeting ground for conservation leaders from both sides of the border.
A tribute to our inspiration
This site is dedicated to the Dallas businessman who proved that conservation belongs to everyone. After helping Texas business leaders defeat a wave of new coal plants, Trammell concluded that the fight had been won by business, not by protest. In 2011 he started Earth Day Dallas to give ordinary people a way to act, and he grew it into EarthX, the international nonprofit that now fills Dallas every April.
His gift is bringing unlikely people to the same table: ranchers and researchers, oil companies and activists, investors and students, Republicans and Democrats. Conservation in the Americas carries that spirit across borders.
The big story
Forty websites, hundreds of volunteers and one idea: people who meet in Dallas can change places they will never forget. Here is how it came together.
Trammell S. Crow starts Earth Day Dallas in the Arts District. It grows into EarthX, where ranchers, scientists, investors and activists meet every April. A year later, the Rotary Club of Newport Beach starts rating its projects on simple forms that grow into the 4-7-8-17 framework.
Bridges, not wallsThe Rotary Club of Newport Beach launches Building Bridges Through Rotary with a simple idea: build bridges, not walls, between the United States and Mexico, one shared service project at a time. It grew into a portfolio of cross-border projects, from the Tijuana River to the monarch forests, and it is the Rotary network behind The Mexico Project today.
When Los Angeles International Airport shut down in March 2020, Steve Bender was stranded on Isla Colón while his Ayuda International dental team was stuck in California. He organized small boats to carry medicine, food and fuel to isolated island families, then started planting: more than 5,000 mountain almond saplings in the first year. A Rotary reef off Isla Solarte and a lionfish program followed, and together they grew into The Panama Project.
The 7 Seas Initiative launches to carry the Panama model to other coasts. Reefs, mangroves, lionfish, turtles, plastic cleanup and a humanitarian catamaran, The Phoenix Project, all join the family. Rotary Reefs, a Rotary Club of Newport Beach project, had already placed second in the global #IFixThePlanet challenge in 2021.
In May 2025 EarthX and Pronatura Noreste bring hunters, biologists and conservationists from Mexico, the United States and Canada together in Nuevo León. That December, Dr. Luis Bourillón of COMEPESCA asks for help for San Evaristo, a fishing village 130 km from the nearest ice. Ice in a Box and The Mexico Project are born.
For EarthX's 15th anniversary, the Environmental Xperience fills 73,000 square feet of the Hilton Anatole. Past Rotary International President Barry Rassin gives the Rotary keynote, Ice in a Box launches, and 100 Projects in 100 Countries is showcased on Earth Day.
The first Trammell S. Crow Forest takes root on the Arctic Circle with Carboreal. On August 6, 2026 volunteers from six nations plant the second in Bocas del Toro. A third is planned for the monarch forests of central Mexico.
On January 1, 2027 Rotary's tortoise float closes the 100 Projects in 100 Countries countdown at the Rose Parade. Earthx2027 returns to Dallas April 20 to 22 with the second Carbon Conference. By 2030 the first captive-bred Great Green Macaws are planned to fly free over Bocas del Toro.
Three forests · One legacy
To honor EarthX founder Trammell S. Crow and fifteen years of his leadership, we are planting forests in his name from the Arctic Circle to the tropics, each one chosen for what it can do for the climate and for wildlife.
On the Arctic Circle, more than 50 acres of former peat farmland are becoming boreal forest again. Drained peat fields make up about a tenth of Finland's farmland but half of its farm emissions, so replanting them turns a carbon source into a carbon sink.
Planted with Carboreal. Verified to ISO 14064-2 by Kiwa.
In one day, more than 50 Rotarians and volunteers from six nations planted over 1,000 trees of more than 50 native species at Dolphin Bay, where The Macaw Project is building its Great Green Macaw aviary.
Every winter, the eastern monarch butterfly population gathers in a few high oyamel fir forests in the mountains of central Mexico. The third Trammell S. Crow Forest will help restore that habitat and support the communities who protect it.
Builds on the monarch tree nurseries The Alluvium Project is funding near the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacán. With Monarchs Without Borders and Pollinators Without Borders.
In Panamá · August 6, 2026
How it fits together
Every forest draws on a whole network of projects. Each one does its own job, and each makes the others stronger.
Independent education on how carbon removal is measured and verified, so donors and companies know what they are paying for.
Trees, mangroves and bamboo go in the ground, and the carbon they store is documented to recognized standards.
The new habitat shelters the species that need it most, on land and at sea.
Gardens, corridors and clean water link the forests together, so pollinators and migrating wildlife find food along the whole route.
Trusted carbon brings in funding for trees. Trees shelter wildlife. Connected habitat keeps migrations alive, and those results give the next donor a reason to trust the carbon. See every project in the network →
Bocas del Toro partners The Panama Project · Bocas Rainforest Reforestation Initiative · MiAmbiente · ITEC · Green Acres · Rotary Club of Newport Beach · Rotary Club of Bocas del Toro · Rotary Reefs · EarthX · Ayuda International · Floating Doctors
Texas first
In 2011 Dallas businessman Trammell S. Crow started Earth Day Dallas as an outdoor fair spread across five blocks of the Arts District. He had joined a group of Texas business leaders who fought a wave of proposed coal plants, and he came away convinced that business, not protest, could win environmental battles.
That fair became EarthX. By 2018 it filled roughly 500,000 square feet of Fair Park and drew more than 137,000 people, over 600 exhibitors and 400 speakers, making it the largest annual environmental gathering of its kind in the world. Today EarthX is an international nonprofit and a member of IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Read more about the man behind it in our tribute to Trammell S. Crow.
Each April, Rotary volunteers run the Environmental Xperience at EarthX, the largest Rotary environmental sustainability gathering in the world, bringing club projects from across the hemisphere to Dallas.
The Texas story · Coastal Conservation Association
By the late 1970s, commercial netting had emptied the Texas bays of redfish and speckled trout. What happened next became a model for coastal fisheries across the Gulf.
In 1977, fourteen recreational anglers met at a Houston tackle shop and formed the Gulf Coast Conservation Association. They were not scientists or regulators. They were fishermen who had watched the bays they loved go quiet.
They did not win by protesting. They organized, raised money, and worked with Texas Parks and Wildlife and with business partners. In 1981 the Legislature passed the Redfish Bill, which ended the sale of wild redfish from Texas waters. Gill nets came off the coast, and redfish and speckled trout became game fish.
Then they built hatcheries. Since 1983, Texas hatcheries have released more than 820 million red drum fingerlings into the bays. Today the group, now called CCA Texas, builds offshore reefs and restores seagrass and oyster beds through its Building Conservation Trust.
It is the same idea behind Rotary Reefs in Panamá: people who use the water pay to put life back into it.
Fourteen fishermen form the Gulf Coast Conservation Association. Texas sets its first daily bag limits on redfish the same year.
House Bill 1000 permanently bans the sale of red drum caught in Texas waters. Redfish and speckled trout become game fish.
CCA, Texas Parks and Wildlife and Central Power and Light open a marine hatchery in Corpus Christi.
The first coastwide stocking puts 7 million young redfish into Texas bays.
Commercial red drum harvest ends in federal waters off the Gulf coast.
500 concrete pyramids go down six miles off Port O'Connor, a $1 million project with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, TPWD and Shell.
Hatcheries at Corpus Christi, Palacios and Lake Jackson keep stocking the coast, and redfish are again one of the most popular fish in Texas.
United States and Mexico
Wildlife, water and monarch butterflies do not stop at the Rio Grande. EarthX has made cross-border cooperation a recurring part of its program.
Since 2016 · Rotary Club of Newport Beach
Building Bridges Through Rotary started in 2016 with one idea: build bridges, not walls, between the United States and Mexico. Rotary clubs on both sides of the border work as partners on water, health, education, peace and the environment. It is the Rotary network behind The Mexico Project and many of the projects on this site.
buildingbridgesthroughrotary.orgEarthX convened wildlife authorities from both countries, who signed a proclamation on trans-border cooperation and the role of private landowners in financing habitat.
Earthx2025 added a Texas-Mexico Sustainable Business Forum presented by the Asociación de Empresarios Mexicanos, AEM USA.
EarthX and Pronatura Noreste bring conservation leaders from Mexico, the U.S. and Canada together in Nuevo León to talk about ecotourism, grasslands and carbon.
A 2026 summit on trade, infrastructure and environmental resilience between Mexico and Texas. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderón was among the Earthx2026 speakers.
The Rotary Club of Newport Beach and its partners carry the conversation into the field with five linked initiatives along the border and in Baja California Sur.
The Mexico Project
A family of Rotary Club of Newport Beach projects with partners including RiverRecycle, GivePower, COMEPESCA, One Million Drops and the Environmental Xperience at EarthX.
More than 100 billion gallons of untreated sewage and industrial waste have reached the 930-hectare estuary in five years, closing beaches for over 700 straight days. The project works with San Diego State University's School of Public Health and Imperial Beach leaders.
tijuanariverproject.org →Solar-powered ice and desalinated water for San Evaristo, a remote fishing village on the Gulf of California.
iceinabox.org →A continental hub for monarchs, native bees, hummingbirds and nectar-feeding bats, whose numbers have fallen by up to 40 percent. Rotary District 5240 already partners with the Monarch Joint Venture in California.
pollinatorswithoutborders.org →Circular-economy restoration for the rivers and watersheds of the border region, turning recovered waste into value instead of landfill.
alluviumproject.org →Launched by the Rotary Club of Newport Beach in 2016 to build bridges, not walls, between the United States and Mexico. Today it links clubs on both sides of the border for peacebuilding, water, health, education and the environment.
buildingbridgesthroughrotary.org →The home for all five initiatives, with partner listings and ways for Rotary clubs in Texas, California and Mexico to join in.
themexicoproject.com →Rotary in Mexico
Mexican Rotary clubs, often side by side with partner clubs in Texas, California and Arizona, are replanting monarch forests, sinking ships to build reefs, cleaning the Río Bravo and bringing solar power to schools. This is the first collection of that work in one place.
See the full table of Rotary projects in Mexico →
Sources: MatchingGrants.org global and district grant listings, Rotary.org, club websites and Mexican news outlets. "Grant listing" means the project appears on MatchingGrants.org and may still be raising funds. Is your club's project missing? Tell us and we will add it.
Hunters and anglers
Some of the largest conservation groups in the Americas were started by duck hunters and fishermen. EarthX has given them a stage in Dallas, from its 2021 U.S.-Mexico hunting and conservation forum to its Conservation Through Fishing and Hunting track.
Founded in 1937 during the Dust Bowl, Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 20 million acres of wetlands across North America. Its supporters fund the work through thousands of local banquets each year, and in 2026 it finished a $4.06 billion campaign backed by more than two million people. The birds that breed in Canada's prairie potholes winter on the Texas coast and in Mexico's lagoons, so DU works in all three countries.
More than 52,000 Texas members. Current work includes restoring the 24,250-acre J.D. Murphrey marsh complex near Port Arthur and protecting the Moody Tract coastal marsh through a landmark land donation.
Ducks Unlimited de México, founded in 1974, works in the four regions that hold 84 percent of Mexico's waterfowl. Its RESERVA program has trained nearly 700 conservation professionals from 22 countries.
Together, Ducks Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited Canada and DUMAC protect the breeding grounds, migration stops and wintering marshes of the same birds.
The Texas group that brought back the redfish now has chapters from Texas to California, funding reefs, hatcheries and seagrass restoration along every U.S. coast.
Read the Texas story ↑Founded in 1959 on Michigan's Au Sable River, with about 150,000 members in roughly 400 chapters. Volunteers restore cold-water streams and teach students through Trout in the Classroom.
tu.org →Formed in 2006 to improve freshwater fish habitat and education. Volunteers build and sink fish habitat structures with biologists and run Kid Fishing Days.
anglersunlimited.org →Field stories
In March 2020, Rotary Club of Newport Beach President Steve Bender flew to Panamá two days ahead of an Ayuda International dental team. Then Los Angeles International Airport shut down. His team was stranded in California, and he was stranded on Isla Colón.
With supplies running low, he organized small boats to carry medicine, food and fuel to seniors, Ngäbe-Buglé families and fishing villages on the outer islands. Between runs he dove the reefs, found bleached coral and invasive lionfish, and started the Rotary Reef program: artificial reefs, a coral seed bank and a lionfish harvest that pays local fishermen. A food exchange called Bocas Bounty followed, then fruit tree deliveries, then more than 5,000 mountain almond saplings in the first year for the Great Green Macaw.
Guided by Project Drawdown and Rotary's 4-7-8-17 framework, those efforts became The Panama Project, the flagship of the 7 Seas Initiative and a living laboratory for all seven Rotary areas of focus.
Only 500 to 1,000 Great Green Macaws remain in the wild. The bird nests almost exclusively in the Mountain Almond, the almendro de montaña (Dipteryx panamensis), and eats its seeds.
Since 2020, volunteers have planted more than 15,000 almendro trees across the Bocas del Toro archipelago. Design is complete for the region's first breeding aviary at Dolphin Bay, and the goal is to release captive-bred macaws into restored habitat by 2030.
Visit The Macaw ProjectDuring the lockdown, imported pineapples arrived from the mainland while local fruit rotted unpicked. Bocas Bounty let island families share and trade fruit, vegetables, seeds, seedlings and fish, uniting Indigenous, Afro-Caribbean and expatriate neighbors.
Read the story →A continental hub linking Canada, the United States and Mexico. It asks monarch groups to share a fair portion of their fundraising with the communities and forests of central Mexico where the butterflies spend the winter.
monarchswithoutborders.org →A Rotary water initiative with EarthX, GivePower and others. In Mexico it features COMEPESCA, which has spent more than 20 years promoting responsible, traceable seafood across the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
onemilliondrops.org →Twenty-eight six-foot Rotary wheels, one for each of the seven areas of focus, plus 280 mini reef "fish hotels." Clubs sponsor a wheel for $5,000 or a mini reef for $2,500 and can dive the structures they paid for.
rotaryreefs.org →The umbrella for the ocean work, with The Panama Project as its flagship. It gathers reef restoration, turtle and whale conservation and lionfish removal under one model designed to be copied by clubs worldwide.
7seasinitiative.org →The Rotary program inside EarthX each spring, with project booths, a carbon stage and youth programs. It is where many of the partnerships on this site first met.
environmentalxperience.com →Rotary clubs in more than 40 countries planting, teaching and building habitat for bees. Pollinators support about a third of the food we eat and add an estimated $577 billion a year to world agriculture.
thebeeprojects.org →A global hub for the fastest-growing plant on Earth, spotlighting the Rotary clubs and grassroots groups using bamboo for climate action, clean water, homes and livelihoods.
thebambooprojects.org →Islands, reefs and mangroves
Launched in 2023 and funded through the 7 Seas Foundation, these projects carry the Panama model to coasts and islands across the Americas.
Rotary global grants for mangrove and coastal restoration, including "Living Treasure" in Panamá, a $32,162 grant with $29,882 still to raise. Its work is dedicated in memory of Dr. Meenakshi "Mina" Venkataraman, who served as an ESRAG Director from 2021 to 2024 and was the founding Chair of ESRAG South Asia.
themangroveproject.org →No Rotary Foundation project has been documented in the islands yet. The first will be the Dr. Mina Venkataraman Mangrove Forest, led by the Rotary Club of Newport Beach with partner clubs and the Galápagos National Park. A Rotary dive expedition is planned for December 2028.
Rotary in the Galápagos →Founded in Bocas del Toro to remove lionfish from Caribbean reefs, study them and put them on restaurant menus. NOAA links lionfish to a 79 percent drop in young native reef fish.
lionfishproject.org →One home for the groups saving all seven sea turtle species, from Grupo Tortuguero de las Californias in Baja to Projeto TAMAR in Brazil and WIDECAST across 40+ Caribbean nations.
turtleproject.org →Stories of the people protecting whales and dolphins, from Captain Paul Watson and the artist Wyland to Mexico's National Whale Museum in Mazatlán.
thewhaleprojects.org →A daily-updated database of 118 solutions that work. In Panamá it tracks the Solarte Island mangrove cleanup of May 20, 2026, when 8 to 10 tons of waste were cleared.
theplasticprojects.org →A purpose-built humanitarian catamaran that will carry health care, clean water and restoration crews to island and river communities with no roads.
thephoenixproject.earth →Free dental care since 1967 for more than 210,000 children, with USC dental students since 1991. In Bocas del Toro its Oral Hygiene Initiative teaches in island classrooms.
ayudaint.org →Brings Rotary clubs and families to Bocas del Toro to plant trees, dive the reefs and visit schools, with 25+ partner organizations and local businesses that give volunteers discounts.
volunteertourism.org →Rotary showcase
Club and action group projects ready to feature. Each one is scored against the 4-7-8-17 framework: the 4-Way Test, 7 Areas of Focus, 8 Pillars of Positive Peace and the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
| Project | Where | Focus | Family |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Mexico Project | Mexico and border | Five linked initiatives | Mexico / Border |
| Tijuana River Project | Tijuana, San Diego | River pollution | Mexico / Border |
| Ice in a Box | San Evaristo, BCS | Solar ice and water | Mexico / Border |
| The Alluvium Project | Border watersheds | Circular economy | Mexico / Border |
| Monarchs Without Borders | Canada, U.S., Mexico | Monarch corridor | Pollinators |
| Pollinators Without Borders | All the Americas | Bees, bats, hummingbirds | Pollinators |
| The Bee Projects | 40+ countries | Rotary clubs for bees | Pollinators |
| The Panama Project | Bocas del Toro, PA | Reefs, health, water | Panama |
| The Macaw Project | Dolphin Bay, PA | Great Green Macaw | Panama |
| Rotary Reefs | Isla Solarte, PA | Coral restoration | Panama |
| The Tree Projects | Bocas del Toro, PA | Reforestation | Panama |
| The Mangrove Project | Central America | Mangroves, black conch | Panama |
| The Lionfish Project | Caribbean | Invasive lionfish | Panama |
| 7 Seas Initiative | Global, from Panama | Ocean umbrella | Ocean |
| Turtle Project | Caribbean and Pacific | Sea turtles | Ocean |
| The Whale Projects | Pacific, incl. Mexico | Whales and dolphins | Ocean |
| The Galápagos Project | Galápagos, Ecuador | Mangroves, tortoises | Ocean |
| The Plastic Projects | Global, incl. Guatemala | Plastic pollution | Ocean |
| One Million Drops | Mexico and worldwide | Water, fisheries | Water and climate |
| Carbon Advisory Coalition | Dallas and online | Carbon credit education | Water and climate |
| Solar of the Americas | 35 countries | Solar education | Water and climate |
| The Bamboo Projects | Worldwide | Bamboo for climate and homes | Water and climate |
| Environmental Xperience | Dallas, Texas | Rotary at EarthX | Texas |
| Growing Green Leaders | Dallas-Fort Worth | Youth climate education | Texas |
| Building Bridges Through Rotary | U.S. and Mexico | Rotary network | Rotary |
| Rotary Climate Action Network | North America | Club climate action | Rotary |
| 100 Projects in 100 Countries | Worldwide | Project countdown | Rotary |
Directory
A growing index of the groups doing this work, from national land trusts to single-species specialists. Filter by region or search by name, country or focus.
This is a starting set of 61 organizations. The full directory will grow through partner submissions. Suggest an organization.
Get involved
Fund a Rotary Reef wheel, a mini reef or a stand of almendro trees for the Great Green Macaw.
Six-day service trips pair dives on the reefs with tree planting, school visits and dental outreach.
Join the Environmental Xperience at EarthX each April and present your own project to the hemisphere.
Coming up
Contact us
Is your club's project missing from the site, or do you know a conservation group we should list? Want to join a trip to Bocas del Toro or the Galápagos, or meet us at EarthX in Dallas? Send us a note and we will get back to you.