Tapio Kalli: working tirelessly to restore the ecological status of the Kuivasjärvi watershed (Finland)
Mr. Tapio Kalli, long-time leader of the fishermen of lake Kuivasjärvi, lives in Kuivasjärvi village (Parkano municipality, appr. 287 kms northwest of Helsinki, Finland). He is in his late 60s.
Doctor Elias Lönnrot, compiler of the national Epic of Finland … Read more
Felicia Barriento Cuellar: strengthening indigenous women for culture and nature in the Chaco region of Bolivia
Felicia Barrientos Cuellar is a brave indigenous woman from the Isoseño-Guarani people. There are three key aspects of her life’s work that greatly helped to enhance intra and inter community solidarity and contributed to improving the life of the Isoseño … Read more
Alassane Zoumaru: inventing a Taneka cultural bank for collective memory and social cohesion (Benin)
Descendant of the Gnam-nê clan– rainmakers and family of great traditional priests and keepers of the timing of agricultural production in Benin– Alassane Zoumarou, is heir of a rich history and many artistic and cultural values. Very young, he expressed … Read more
The Ntinga Ntaba ka Ndoda: a “decent life of dignity” for all communities (South Africa)
Ntinga Ntaba ka Ndoda is a community-owned and democratically controlled movement that incubates, catalyses and facilitates participatory democracy and sustainable rural development, drawing its members from 13 villages in Keiskammahoek south, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
With … Read more
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
