After the Highland Clearances in the 18th and 19th centuries, where communities were expelled from their lands in favour of sheep, legislation was brought in to give people secure tenancies, called crofts, to protect them from being cleared from the land again. In 2007 the Crofting Reform Act opened up the traditional crofting model to […]

“If not us, who will protect our territories? Who will manage our territories?” Indonesian Indigenous Youth called their fellow brothers living in the cities and finished their studies back to the community. They called it the ‘Homecoming movement. Youth are driving new models of sustainable rural development, creating organic vegetable gardens, herbal medicine gardens and […]

Update: April 2021 The Dutch National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines announced on April 20, 2021 that they would accept a complaint against Pluspetrol, a multinational oil firm headquartered in an Amsterdam mailbox. The decision gives Indigenous communities in the oil fields of the Peruvian Amazon a path for seeking remediation from Pluspetrol for […]

The community of Lago do Mainá have lived with the forest and the river, nature for them is the most fundamental thing they have. However a military training base and increasing incursions by soldiers created tension between the community and the army. Through the use of social mapping the people of Lago do Mainá have […]

Wildfires may grab headlines but indigenous peoples and local communities who depend the Amazon face many different threats. Not only are their territories targeted for illegal extractive activities such as gold mining and deforestation but without clear land titles their situation remains legally precarious. But more than this – indigenous peoples and local communities offer […]

Results of a new scientific study show that indigenous peoples using remote sensing technology can better survey their lands and reduce deforestation by half. Under the community-based forest monitoring program, called Rainforest Alert, indigenous scouts combine satellite imagery with foot patrols to verify evidence and equip community leaders with the information they need to take […]

Having lived for millennia in the forests of the ‘Amazonian Trapezoid’, today the Amacayacu National Park, indigenous communities there are now treated as an obstacle to conservation. Their rights have been systematically violated since the National Park was created in 1975. In April 2015 the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism signed an agreement to […]

In a rapidly dwindling community forest the people of Pandumaan & Sipituhuta have put up a strong fight to stop the growth of monoculture eucalyptus plantations. But the aggressive actions of the company & its close alignment with local politicians & the police have led this struggle down a dark path – protests, intimidation, arrests […]

Imagine communities and land-owners being paid by the government to protect their forests & natural resources? Costa Rica is the only tropical country in the world that has reversed the process of deforestation through a unique fuel tax law that impresses the importance of protecting the environment & helping develop communities.

The indigenous people of Sungai Utik, a Dayak Iban community in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, have maintained a strong traditional connection to their forests despite continuous pressure from logging and palm oil companies intent on taking their land. Their forests remain intact and their traditional values are keeping their community together. If we want to keep […]

Yaily comes from the region of Guna Yala, Panama. She studied a degree in Sanitation and Environment in the Technological University of…

Elizabeth Swanson Andi is a member of the Santu Urku Kichwa community on the Napo River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is an indigenous …

Jimmy is an indigenous filmmaker. He was born in the Siekoya Remolino community. He loves to face new challenges, visit new places and …

Kuyu is a filmmaker in Kuyujani Produccion Audiovisual and belongs to the indigenous people of Yekwana, (State of Bolivar, Venezuela). …

Yarixa comes from the region of Guna Yala, in the Caribbean coast of Panama. She was born and raised in Panama, and is currently studyi…

​​Alcibiades is a facilitator, photographer and amateur filmmaker specialized in environmental storytelling. He is a member of the …

Yumi Ortiz  (also known as Lyudmila Vallarino) comes from the region of Guna Yala, in the Caribbean coast of Panama. Yumi is a student…

Jose was born in 1994 in the community of Carmelita, San Andrés, Peten, Guatemala, located in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. He graduated…

Nazario Tiul Choc is from a community known as Cooperativa Unión Maya Itzá (a community that was repatriated from Mexico to Guatemala…

Ribaldo is a young Siekopai photographer and filmmaker. He lives in the Ecuadorion Amazon and is a member of the NGO Alianza Ceibo, an …

Luciane Saw Munduruku, more known among her friends and relatives as Beka Munduruku, is 18 years old and lives in Sawre Muybu villag…e.

Nelson was born in Melchor de Mencos (Peten department) and has lived in the Cooperativa Integral Agropecuaria Técnica Responsabilidad…

Chris is an indigenous male of the Arecuna Nation in Guyana. He is 32 years old and has been volunteering for the past three years unde…

Welder is a Guatemalan citizen and resident of the community Cruce a La Colorada, which holds a concession that allows the sustainable …

Jhonatan a is  21 year old Dayak Kanayatn Youth from Sungai Ambawang, West Kalimantan. He is a Medical student from the Medical Facult…

Kokoyamaratxi Renan Suya is a photographer, filmmaker and motion graphic maker from the Kisedjê people (Mato Grosso, Brazil). In 2008…

Carlos is a documentary film maker who lives in the community of Waorani Titepare, in the Amazonian Region of Ecuador. His role involve…

Edivan Guajajara is from the Zutiwa village, located in Arariboia Indigenous Land (Maranhão, Brazil) and one of the creators of the c…

Tirza Yanira Ixmucané Saloj Oroxom, Mayan K’iche, born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Illustrator, muralist, plastic artist, and audi…

Kalfein Michael Wuisan or Kale, is an Indigenous Minahasa youth from Wuwuk, Sulawesi Utara, Indonesia. Besides involvement in the youth…

An emerging filmmaker, Gabriela belongs to the Garifuna people and has a background in Honduran indigenous and black peoples’ rights,…r.

Noveni is Dayak Bahau, an indigenous peoples from East Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Since 2017, she has been defending the rights of…

The journalist and communicator Erisvan Bone Guajajara is founder of the digital platform Mídia Índia. He was born in Lagoa Quieta vi…

Alexandro lives in Rio Bonito indigenous village, located in Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil. Since he was 12, Alexandro has worked within …

Indigenous groups across Indonesia believe there are consequences to the life cycle, like in Manusela Village in Maluku, Indonesia. Before cutting down trees in the forest, the Manusela Indigenous People carry out a tradition known as “Pisinae”. This is done to ask permission from the Creator of the universe and ancestors for the needs of […]

“If not katong, who else?” Emil and Viko are members of the “Small Kewang” in Haruku Country, in Maluku, Indonesia. “Kewang” not only stands as an institution, but also a home for them to continue the tradition of protecting the environment in Haruku Country, Kab. Central Moluccas. Being a Kewang since childhood is a matter […]

Thanks to arduous resistance the Sapara Nation won a great victory against the oil concessions in their territory , however, it still runs the risk that its territory, in the future, will be taken again as an object of oil exploitation. The Sapara Nation of Ecuador demands the cancellation of the oil exploitation contract that […]

A powerful film by Ivan Jaripio, Embera indigenous filmmaker from Panama. In this short creative film he contrasts indigenous traditions with the contemporary world of Panama. Faced with the territorial and cultural threat of modernization, the resistance of the indigenous peoples to defend their traditions is urgent.

A look back on 30 years since the Mayan Biosphere Reserve was created in 1990. Local communities brought the forest back from the brink with a Forest Protection Association by requesting a concession from the National Council of Protected Areas. the odds were stacked against them, 30 years ago no one believed the community could […]