Grantee Spotlight: Sofia Lopez Mañan & Juan Martin Ortiz
On the Edge Fund, Storyteller grantee spotlight
05/05/2025
Lights, camera, action – there’s a special toad out there about to get a serious glow up.
Sofía Lopez Mañan is a photographer with over 10 years of experience documenting the human relationship with biodiversity. Juan Martín Ortiz is a musician and producer who creates high-impact, immersive experiences through music. Together, they’ll invite community members and wider audiences into a captivating experience and film to explore harlequin toads and their habitat in the Ecuadorian jungle.
Sofia and Juan’s work
Using a unique visual and sound approach, Sofia and Juan will create a dream-like and multisensory experience to explore the deep symbolic and spiritual value that these guardians of the forest have in local communities, highlighting their fascinating character and generating a sense of pride and ownership to want to protect them from extinction.
On the Edge will support the team to record, remix and create a soundscape that will accompany a special light display in the forests to remind people of the jewels that exist alongside them. The event will be run to leverage community buy-in to conservation activities to protect each of the species. Alongside this, a film to document the experience, music tracks, and BTS content will also be delivered to help connect with broader audiences, including Gen-Z and Gen-A, through social content.
Name:
Sofia Lopez Mañan & Juan Martin Orti
Country of origin:
Argentina
Species of choice:
Rio Faisanes stubfoot toad (CR)
Where to from here?
Catch our Animal Sensemaker episode featuring Stingless bees
In the Amazon and tropical places around the world, armies of stingless bees spend their days collecting nectar from plants and flowers across the forest. Listen here.
Back to On the Edge fund
Discover more about how you can get involved with protecting nature’s underdogs, here.
