QRFN provided a $30,000 grant to the Khamai Foundation in July 2025, which served as a downpayment to secure a 28-hectare expansion of the Arlequin Reserve in the cloud forests of Ecuador, expanding the reserve from 5 ha to 33 ha. Rapid QRFN support held the property and prevented its conversion to cattle pasture while Khamai raised the remaining funds; those pledges are in place, and the purchase is expected to close by December 2025.
This expansion safeguards the last surviving population of the Critically Endangered Mindo Harlequin Toad (Atelopus mindoensis), a species once thought extinct until its rediscovery in 2019. Since QRFN’s support, Khamai has recorded the first gravid (pregnant) female observed since the rediscovery—an encouraging sign for the species’ recovery. The acquisition also protects critical breeding and refuge habitat for 16 additional threatened and narrow-range amphibian and reptile species, including the Longnose Stubfoot Toad (Atelopus longirostris, CR), Spiny Dwarf-Gecko (Lepidoblepharis conolepis, EN), and Eugenia’s Rainfrog (Pristimantis eugeniae, EN).