Community Impact
We believe exploring the Dominican Republic comes with a responsibility to protect it. Through regular cleanups, we remove trash from beaches, rivers, caves, and other natural spaces—restoring places impacted by waste washed ashore or left behind.
Why the work matters
In many parts of the Dominican Republic, littering has become so normalized that the distinction between organic waste and human-made waste is often overlooked. A banana peel, a plastic bottle, a piece of fishing line, or a metal can may all be treated as something that will simply disappear into the landscape. But while nature can eventually break down some organic materials, plastic, metal, and other manufactured waste can remain in the environment for decades or longer.
That makes conservation an ongoing challenge. At Yuma Co., we believe that protecting the Dominican Republic requires more than simply picking up trash—it requires education, awareness, and a change in how we think about waste.
We are doing our part by continually cleaning the places we explore, but we know we cannot do it alone. Our goal is to grow these efforts into larger conservation projects, bring volunteers into the work, and help educate more people about responsible waste disposal while restoring the natural places that have already been affected.
The Yuma River Project
For more than three years, Yuma Co. has made the Yuma River an ongoing focus of our environmental work. The river runs through Higüey, one of the Dominican Republic’s major cities, where the connection between what happens in the city and what happens downstream is often easy to overlook. When heavy rains come, trash from streets, drains, and neighborhoods is carried through the drainage system and eventually into the Yuma River—leaving the community of Boca de Yuma to deal with the consequences.
For years, our approach was largely reactive. We would remove at least a few pieces of trash from the river during every visit and organize major cleanups during peak rainy seasons, often working alongside the local fishing community that depends on the river. Eventually, we realized we needed to go further upstream. We began targeting the places where trash became trapped between boulders, fallen trees, branches, and other natural debris before it could continue downstream.
That shift from reacting to the problem to preventing it from spreading has made an enormous difference. Today, through consistent effort and local collaboration, we are able to keep the Yuma River remarkably clean nearly 365 days a year.
Clean-up Cotubanama
Cotubanamá National Park is one of the Dominican Republic’s wildest places, with more than 200 miles of trails winding through dense jungle, countless caves, and natural springs known as cenotes. Thousands of people visit the park each year to explore these incredible places, but many leave behind a trail of trash that eventually becomes part of the landscape.
Through thousands of trips into the park over the years, Yuma Co. has made it a point to clean as we explore. We have removed more than 100 tons of trash from Cotubanamá, carrying it out of the jungle by hand and ensuring it doesn't remain in the caves, trails, forests, and waterways where it can damage the environment.
Our efforts are concentrated around several of the park's most frequently visited areas, including Hoyo Azulito, Hoyo Verde, the Cotubanamá Main Trail, and Camino 7. These cleanups are not occasional events—they are part of our ongoing commitment to protecting the places we bring people to experience. Every trip gives us another opportunity to leave Cotubanamá a little better than we found it.
