Posts Tagged ‘indigenous’
Beyond Growth: A Mountain Community Rewriting the Future of Climate Resilience
Perched on the upper slopes of Mount Halimun–Salak in West Java’s Sukabumi region, the cultural landscape of Kasepuhan Gelar Alam is easily misread by modern rationality as a sociological fossil, trapped in the romanticism of the past. Behind the thatched ijuk roofs and agrarian rituals, however, lies a progressive political laboratory. Omah Gede – Indonesia…
Read MoreWhat I Saw Outside the Blue Zone in Belém
I am Thais Mantovani, co-founder of EcoUniversidade, and for the past six years I have also been working with Local Futures, helping to strengthen the localization movement in Brazil and supporting grassroots initiatives that defend territory, rebuild food systems and imagine ecological futures from the ground up. I went to COP30 in Belém not only…
Read MoreEducating for the World We Need
A note on how this was written This following text was born from a collective process during the Feminine Futures webinar, hosted by Local Futures and inspired by Thais Mantovani’s presentation on regenerative education. Participants from around the world were invited to reflect, dream, and write together. The words below are a weaving of many…
Read MoreWhy Agroecology Needs Social Movements
Women in Nigeria grow and sell orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. Image by Sonii David/Community Eye Health via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) The 2nd East African Agroecology Conference was a three-day event, from March 25-28, and according to the organizers’ report, over 700 people participated. Alongside a range of side events, there were exhibitions showcasing everything from…
Read MoreIf All Life Mattered, What Would Decision-Making Look Like?
In April 2013, the Supreme Court of India delivered a historic judgement recognizing the cultural, religious and spiritual rights of the Dongria Kondh Adivasis, an Indigenous community residing in the Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha state in eastern India. The community fighting against bauxite mining in their sacred landscape had articulated that “our way of life…
Read MoreIt’s Not the End, We Have Several Possible Futures: Interview with indigenous author Ailton Krenak
For decades, scientists have been warning that the world is heading toward catastrophic scenarios due to climate change. But Ailton Krenak refuses to think about an apocalypse. On the contrary, he argues that there are several possible futures — but they will only be achievable when we realize that “being is more important than having.”…
Read MoreGo Back and Fetch It: Sankofa and the Cult of Progress
Last year, I was one of an international throng of localists (yes, international localists) to descend on Bristol, UK. We were there for the Planet Local Summit – perhaps the largest gathering of this movement to date. It was as if everyone I’d ever read or listened to on a podcast or seen in a…
Read MoreAfrica’s Forgotten Farmers
Recently, renowned environmental and human rights advocate George Monbiot shared his perspectives on global food systems. Monbiot, once an advocate for small-scale African food producers, now seems to align more with corporate narratives: that they alone can address the world’s hunger problems. While the ongoing debate between British authors over the future of global food…
Read MoreThe Abundance of Subsistence
One late-summer day, a day so hot the mosquitoes weren’t flying, my brother and his wife and I traveled nine miles up the Unalakleet River to seine for humpies, or pink salmon. We laughed and hollered while pulling the net to a flat, wide bar made of perfect skipping and throwing stones at the inside…
Read MoreStop Solar Geoengineering
Geoengineering is the intentional, large-scale technological manipulation of the Earth’s systems, often discussed as a techno-fix for combating climate change. Climate geoengineering technologies include so-called solar radiation management, greenhouse gas removal and sequestration and weather modification. None of these technofixes address the root causes of climate change, and would allow CO2 emissions to continue, creating…
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