Described as the ‘freshwater Galapagos’, the ancient lakes and surrounding areas of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are home to some of the most unique sets of flora and fauna in the world.
However, in recent years, the level of threat to this ecosystem has increased dramatically with overdevelopment in the area.

These lakes are surrounded by largely unexplored forests, which support vibrant animal populations and act as watersheds that provide clean water and help to regulate the local climate; in other words, saving the lakes requires saving their forests.
YSL Beauty’s objective in supporting this area is to reduce the impact of invasive species on the endemic species of the lakes (restoring more than 16,000 hectares of Lake Matano), while also working with forest edge communities to manage, protect, and restore 30,000 hectares of forests.