The Qalang Smangus community: collective governance to sustainably manage the natural commons in the mountains of Taiwan
The small village of Qalang Smangus is home to a tribe of Atayal indigenous people in a mountainous area of northern Taiwan. Their great achievement of the last twenty years is their own evolution as a sustainable community that gains … Read more
Damodar Kashyap – promoting local harmony and a thriving forest for every village
Damodar Kashyap is about 67 years old and belongs to the Bhatra community of Sandh Karmari, a village of 1500 people composed of several hamlets in the eastern border of Bastar, Chhattisgarh (India). For 35 years he has been the … Read more
Tribal solidarity : a key to innovation, adaptation to climate change and a better life for the Abolhassani Confederacy of Iran
The Abolhassani Indigenous Nomadic Tribal Confederacy has lived and migrated seasonally in a peri-Central-Desert area known as Touran, one of nine UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in Iran. Its ancestral domain—a nomadic tribal conserved territory— covers about 74,000 hectares within the Reserve. … Read more
Dario Novellino: determination, intelligence and a sense of justice for indigenous peoples (Philippines and Italy)
Dario is one of those admirable people who dedicate their lives to a just cause. His one is the indigenous peoples’ struggle for self-determination on the Island of Palawan (The Philippines). Over the last twenty-five years, Dario’s effort to protect … Read more
Felipe Gomez: strengthening culture to defend collective rights and sacred sites in Guatemala
Felipe Gomez is a Mayan spiritual leader, who studied theology and has good understanding of different religions and worldviews that he uses to unite and empower traditional and spiritual leaders in communities across different cultures and linguistic barriers. Besides his … Read more
Norman Jiwan: indigenous activist to control palm oil expansion in Indonesia
Norman Jiwan, a Kerambai Dayak from West Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) is an NGO activist who works for the Indonesian NGO, SawitWatch, a watchdog group that tracks the palm oil industry in the region.
He acts as director of the research … Read more
Arjun Singh Nag: tribal lawyer defending the adivasi, customary law and nature (India)
Arjun Singh Nag, known as Nag-ji, is one of the first tribal lawyers of Bastar district in Central India. Nag ji hails from Jaitgiri, a small tribal village in Bastar; Bastar is a predominantly forested area and home to a … Read more
The Popular Committee of Bil’in : a peaceful exemplary struggle against “the wall” in Palestine
Bil’in is a Palestinian village that wants to continue to live… and because of that it has been fighting g hard to save its land, its olive trees, its resources and its freedom. By building its “separation wall”, the state … Read more
The Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartado: confronting violence with unity and solidarity in Colombia
The Colombian government claims that the Urabá region is pacified… but the only peace that people speak about in the region is the peace of the graves, the peace of those who remain silent for fear of guns and intimidation…… Read more
Dam Chanty: courageous organiser of indigenous peoples in Ratanakiri province (Cambodia)
Ms. Dam Chanty is an indigenous Tampuen/Lao with a long history of working to strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples in Ratanakiri Province and Cambodia. Chanty is 53 years old and has 6 children and 3 grandchildren and is fluent … Read more
