• In Costa Rica’s Talamanca region, Indigenous Bribri women are championing sustainable agroforestry practices in a tradition that stretches back for millennia.

• Known as fincas integrales, it’s a system that mimics the diversity and productivity of the forest: timber trees provide shade for fruit trees, which in turn shelter medicinal plants, amid all of which livestock and even wildlife thrive.

• One of the few matrilineal societies in the world, the Bribri women are taking back their leadership after decades of decline and social problems in the community.

• Talamanca is also home to vast monoculture plantations of crops like bananas, a completely different farming system that relies on the heavy use of pesticides — a practice that the Bribri women say destroys the land.

Sammy Gensaw, 26, grew up paddling redwood canoes on the Klamath River and driving the winding mountain roads of California’s North Coast. Since he was 10, Gensaw has been advocating for his people – and the food provided by the river and its valley – at government meetings and with nonprofit groups.

Giving Indigenous communities the means to feed their families is a responsibility Gensaw wants to take on, starting with giving people access to healthful food choices.

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The jewels of America’s landscape should belong to America’s original peoples.

By David Treuer

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“In this critical phase of life on our planet, a new paradigm of economic and demographic growth is only possible if the Earth’s ecology is preserved and enhanced,” says Davide Bollati, Davines Group Owner & Chair. “With the aim of tackling this gigantic task, Davines Group has been doing its part throughout the years with humility and enthusiasm for the cause. Partnering now with Rodale Institute, a true kindred spirit and dynamic pioneer of this regenerative vision, is a collaborative way to take greater steps on our journey to making the world a more beautiful place through beauty, ethics and sustainability. We hope our partnership will not only positively impact our product development and supply chain, but also serve as a catalyst for change that will animate sustainability studies and regenerative organic farming practices in Italy, Europe and beyond.”

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Scientists from South Africa and the United States are launching a campaign to map marine, freshwater, and terrestrial species and ecosystems in one of Earth’s biodiversity hotspots: the Greater Cape Floristic Region at the southwestern edge of South Africa.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will fly planes over the area for six weeks in 2023 to measure the height and structure of vegetation and collect ultraviolet, visual, thermal, and other imagery across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In addition, teams on the ground will observe locations of particular interest, log plants and, possibly, animals they detect.

Using this data, the team will map the region’s biodiversity, provide estimates of species’ distribution and abundance, and the boundaries of ecosystems, and research how biodiversity impacts the physical environment and vice versa. In other words, the campaign will help scientists understand the structure, function and composition of ecosystems in the study area.

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Most conversations about food tend to travel along a horizontal plane, spanning the distance from farm to table. But in continuing the work toward a more just food system, we also must travel vertically — deep into the soil. We need to talk about seeds and, in doing so, some of us need to do less talking and more listening.

Shiloh Maples is affiliated with the Ojibwe and Odawa tribes as part of the larger Anishinaabe community. She is based in Southeast Michigan and acts as Upper Midwest regional coordinator for the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, a national program organized by the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. Her work is centered on seeds as a core element of food sovereignty for Indigenous communities across the United States.

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A colleague recently told me that climate justice is about building ties between people, their land, and their traditional, ancestral ways. In all my years of doing environmental work, this is one of most succinct ways I’ve heard to describe what climate justice means for Indigenous People and communities: Reconnecting to our land is an integral piece of addressing climate change, for both our Nations and our wider communities.

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The People’s Summit is composed primarily of movements of landless peasants, agricultural workers, fisherfolk, indigenous people, rural women and youth—or small food producers who produce 70% of the world’s food, yet remain among the world’s poorest and food insecure.

“The issue of landlessness and land grabbing is not in the agenda of the UNFSS. Nowhere in its so-called Action Tracks do discussions highlight critical trends such as on land concentration and reconcentration in the hands of big agribusiness firms and their network of local landlords and compradors, nor on the massive displacement of rural communities to give way to big private investments and large development projects,” said Chennaiah Poguri, chairperson of the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC).

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"We argue that Indigenous Māori frameworks offer powerful ways of thinking about how we protect the Antarctic, by focusing on responsibilities rather than rights, including the responsibilities we have to future generations," she says.

Antarctica is unlike any other place on Earth -- it is remote, there are no permanent human settlements, and no one nation has sovereignty.

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Director of the Sicangu Food Sovereignty Initiative (FSI), Matte Wilson, weaves together Lakota tradition and modern models to form award-winning ideas about regenerative farming on the Sioux Rosebud Reservation in south-central South Dakota.

Today, high rates of food insecurity, unemployment and diseases such as diabetes and heart disease are common among many Native American tribes including the Sicangu Lakota Oyate (Burnt Thigh Lakota Nation). As such, organizations are working to help reestablish the economy.

Wilson explains that food insecurity on various reservations is common with the destruction of the buffalo economy. (The Sioux historically refer to bison as buffalo.) The Lakota/Dakota/Nakota nations, which are all part of the Great Sioux Nation, traditionally followed and hunted buffalo herds and harvested plants along the way.

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Vanishing insects, soil without earthworms, dying coral reefs: biodiversity is clearly on the decline. Two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) published an alarming report with a clear message: we must turn the tide before ecosystems collapse. The future of humanity is hanging by a thread. Biodiversity forms the basis for our existence, providing us with food, clean drinking water, climate adaptation, and a buffer against disease. This realisation is the driving force behind the mission that Liesje Mommer, Professor of Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, has formulated for Wageningen University & Research (WUR): to reverse the decreasing biodiversity curve. She wants to connect all WUR initiatives, research studies and researchers working on biodiversity. Her motto: we are better together.

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An urban farmer, seed keeper, and member of the Tlingit Nation, Kirsten Kirby-Shoote is uplifting Indigenous food sovereignty

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“Our theme for the Center for Architecture Lab residency is ‘Indigenous Futurism,’” Gallegos said. “We will be exploring narratives of the future for Indigenous communities and architectural sovereignty guided by the lenses of technology, alternative worlds, science fiction and studies of temporality.”

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A new study by historical ecologists finds that Indigenous-managed forests -- cared for as 'forest gardens' -- contain more biologically and functionally diverse species than surrounding conifer-dominated forests and create important habitat for animals and pollinators.
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Do you want to start a community pantry in your barangay? 

What started out as a lone initiative in Maginhawa created ripples across the country as several barangays put up their own community pantry or “bodegang bayan” to help Filipinos badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  (READ: ‘Pagod na ako sa inaction’: How a community pantry rose to fill gaps in gov’t response)

The woman behind the initiative, Ana Patricia Non, set up a bamboo cart with free grocery goods along the popular Maginhawa Street in UP Village on Wednesday, April 14. 

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Currently, the focus is on soil research. Specifically, using regenerative practices to restore degraded soils and increase soil carbon. Examples include various applications of multispecies cover crops, effects of pesticides on soil microbial diversity, integrating biochar into regenerative agriculture practices and building soil carbon through regenerative practices.

“In order to have impact, these projects have been designed as pilots to build capacity in different bioregions across the country. Our multi-species cover cropping will be triangulated across three states of Australia,” said Ms Gordon.

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“Small planning grants and proof of concept models were able to work and show [tribal networks are] a viable solution that could bring in more money later,” says Hannah Trostle, the author of the ILSR report. “It’s feasible, and it’s possible.” ILSR has counted nearly four dozen tribes in what’s considered the United States with their own internet networks.

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By establishing portfolio of emerging companies targeting improved soil health outcomes, TNC aims to prime the pump for sustainable innovation across investment sectors

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AS the recovery from COVID-19 in the Pacific gains momentum, agriculture and food systems are central to its success.

The organic movement in Fiji and region-wide has continued to grow, even during this still lingering calamity.

Now is the time to support organics in agriculture, and the movement cannot play a strong role in COVID recovery without recognising one of its central driving forces – women.

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Farming for Nature is a national initiative that highlights the positive role that farmers play in looking after nature on their land. It aims to share their practical insights through a range of short films, podcasts, webinars, and farm walks.

These give them a louder voice in the debate as to how action can be taken at farm level to tackle biodiversity and climate crises in Ireland.

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The Earth’s forests are some of the richest and most biodiverse habitats we have.

Not only do they serve as important carbon sinks, but up to 350 million people living in or near them rely on their ecosystems for a range of basic needs, from food and shelter, to energy and medicine.

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Mitchell, 28, who was a board member at the Food Project in Boston before going to work at Greensgrow Farm in Philadelphia, told Sierra, “When I started farming, it felt very healing to me. It was a way of doing some ancestral trauma healing work, and it felt very important to me that my agricultural practice was related to this.” 

Eventually, Mitchell searched for ways to deepen her agricultural practice and knowledge. In 2016, she attended the Northeast Organic Farming Association conference, and while there she couldn’t help but notice that she was one of the few people of color. Looking to connect with farmers of color, she struck up a conversation with a Black elder and asked what his needs were. He told her: high-quality seeds that are culturally appropriate and easily accessible to Black farmers and gardeners

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Soil microorganisms play a critical role in the survival of life-sustaining ecosystems and, consequently, human well-being. Global assessments continue to provide strong evidence that humans are causing unprecedented biodiversity losses. However, existing information is strongly biased towards selected groups of vertebrates and plants, while much less is known about potential shifts in belowground communities.
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In nature, everything works together and there is deep collaboration from all beings to survive. Moss, lichen, fungi, trees and roots are all connected to each other and create life and possibility beyond language, time and generation. The roots of the forest floor share knowledge and guidance in the movement for change and liberation.

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The benefits are sometimes ignored with tropical tree-sourced foods clustered as “lost, underutilized or neglected” because they are overlooked by governments and development agencies. But hundreds of millions depend upon them, and they have huge potential to contribute significantly to the availability of fruit and vegetables.

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New research shows that biodiversity is important not just at the traditional scale of short-term plot experiments--in which ecologists monitor the health of a single meadow, forest grove, or pond after manipulating its species counts--but when measured over decades and across regional landscapes as well. The findings can help guide conservation planning and enhance efforts to make human communities more sustainable.

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The seed for food sovereignty has been firmly planted on South African soil. It is this seed which must now grow into a stronger, bolder, impactful network that can take food sovereignty to the next level.

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The world’s food supplies are still very deeply connected with the soil: without healthy, well-functioning soil, we cannot produce nutritious food. It’s as simple as that. 

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A new marae-based project has been launched to help Kaipara residents grow their own food.

The first of four educational hui will be held this month to teach people how to transform their backyards into food bowls."

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Farmers and activists gathered at the Hawaii State Capitol Wednesday to call on lawmakers to provide more land and resources to subsistence farmers

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In that spirit, a few of Stone Pier Press’s News Fellows sat down with a sampling of the leaders fighting to create a more equitable and just food system. From indigenous activists striving for tribal food sovereignty to an organization returning farmland to the communities where it belongs, these are the people who are rewriting the story of food. These are their stories; we hope they leave you feeling as inspired as they did us.

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Eighty humble plants and the wisdom of North American indigenous people add up to simple yet magnificent insights in Enrique Salmón's new book, Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science

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Unlike many of her peers, De Oro grew up in a CHamoru-speaking household. Her dad, an avid gardener, taught her to care for the land, while her grandmother taught her traditional CHamoru medicine. As a young adult, she apprenticed with local healers, spending her days foraging for herbs and studying the health benefits of coconuts

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The IYFV 2021 is a unique opportunity to raise awareness on the important role of fruits and vegetables in human nutrition, food security, and health and as well in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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Scientists embrace benefits of trees in landscapes for livelihoods and nutrition.

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This project aims to:

• share existing nature friendly farming practice across a range of farm and croft types across four regions in Scotland.

• create regionally context specific communities to develop nature friendly farming networks and create a supportive community to guide, advise and share practices to bring back biodiversity to farmed landscapes.

• create a legacy resource in the form of a film to highlight existing practice and share potential actions to enable the restoring, preserving and enhancing of biodiversity.

• establish a network who will benefit from future activity to develop biodiversity identification skills.

Globally, there is empirical evidence that women have a decisive role in ensuring food security and preserving local agro-biodiversity. The reason being that rural women are responsible for the integrated management and use of diverse natural resources to meet the daily household needs.

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"These massive challenges can, however, be reframed as a once in a lifetime opportunity to fundamentally change how humanity relates to nature and to each other."

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“We have been here since time immemorial.”  

There might be no phrase more ubiquitous in Indian Country than this. (Insert obligatory “skoden,” and “ ayy,” references.) The meaning of the phrase is clear: Indigenous peoples have existed on and stewarded these lands for far longer than modern conceptions of time or human history have ever acknowledged. This truth — this fact — is enshrined through our stories, through our bodies, and through our natural relatives. So why is it that Indigenous findings and voices continue to be ignored, even when they are proved correct?

Cities have an incredible opportunity to realign human interests with nature and its biodiversity. Due to the lockdowns of the past year, many people have found a renewed appreciation for green public space and blue skies. Now, some cities are leveraging the opportunity of stimulus measures to access resources to move towards a green and just recovery. Integrating the principles of circularity and custodianship of biodiversity can help achieve this goal.

The relationship between biodiversity and the circular economy is not entirely clear cut. Although we may need biodiversity for a circular economy, biodiversity does not necessarily need the circular economy. Nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly clear that aligning the circular economy with the biodiversity agenda can make important contributions to global recovery efforts and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Ultimately, cities need to look beyond their own boundaries and understand the biodiversity impact of products and raw materials they produce and import. The challenge will not only be about preserving the last remaining natural places, but to create new ones, especially in cities.

There are three ways in which circular principles can be applied to cities whilst respecting nature and supporting biodiversity.

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After 20 years and hundreds of students, one of Māoridom's most important artists has retired from his role as an educator at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa at the age of 82.

Sandy Adsett of Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Pāhauwera created Toimairangi School of Māori Visual Art at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in 2002. Over the 20 years he has mentored hundreds of students including the director of Te Pātaka Art + Museum Reuben Friend.

While Toimairangi provided a solid base to work from, Adsett said he had particularly enjoyed uplifting the arts kaupapa in Ngāti Kahungunu through Iwi Toi Kahungunu, an organisation he created to promote local artists and their art.

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Visibility Through Art is a community art initiative produced annually as part of CHIRP’s Arts and Culture Program. Visibility Through Art is an intentional and informed collaboration between local artists and members of the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe. Each project year explores a theme or subject of importance to the Tribe, culminating in an annual exhibit. This year, artists were asked to center around Destruction of the Land | Destruction of the People. We are invited to consider: the impact humans have on the environment and the long-lasting impacts of the gold rush on the Nisenan people. Art opens the way for meaningful conversations around topics that are not always easy to have and sometimes can reveal solutions that may otherwise remain unseen.

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Special report Indigenous articles 

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The declaration comes roughly a year after he expressed concern over a lack of consultation on a massive provincial irrigation project at Lake Diefenbaker that he says could affect water flows into the delta. He said he remains hopeful for a solution that could satisfy all parties.

He wasn’t alone in urging a seat at the table for the First Nation.

“For too long, (the delta) has been degraded by government policies and decisions that do not consider or include First Nations’ voices — and today that way of doing business comes to an end,” Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Vice Chief Heather Bear said in a prepared statement.

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In this episode, John Noksana, Carolina Behe, and Mumilaaq Qaqqaq sit down with Threshold producers Amy Martin and Nick Mott to discuss Inuit food security and Inuit sovereignty in the North.

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This First Person article is the experience of Ossie Michelin, a Labrador Inuk journalist from the community of North West River. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

Growing up in my home community of North West River, in central Labrador, we saw a number of researchers, writers, explorers and others come and go. Sometimes, they would hire someone from my family as a guide.

The best ones made lifelong friendships and their work benefited our community well. But what many of them wrote about us, or what they said, didn't match up with our lived experience.

For centuries, the humanity of Indigenous people has been hidden behind stereotypes, myths and prejudices. Indigenous voices have long been silenced, only allowed to be heard when deemed valid by an "expert" like a priest, scientist, politician or bureaucrat.

By denying us access to the conversations that shaped this country, we were written off into the history books as a relic from a bygone era.

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But Holl knows there are limits to what trees can do to help. 

That’s why she’s collaborating with conservation organizations and climate advocates to appropriately plan and care for forest restoration projects so that trees can be effective in storing as much carbon dioxide as possible in the long term. When done well, tree-planting provides a whole host of benefits for people and the planet. But without proper planning, there can actually be unintended negative consequences. And Holl wants to see more focus on preserving existing ecosystems, since it’s easier to protect a healthy forest or grassland than to restore one that has been lost. 

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Cultural diversity -- indicated by linguistic diversity -- and biodiversity are linked, and their connection may be another way to preserve both natural environments and Indigenous populations in Africa and perhaps worldwide, according to an international team of researchers

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I launched One Blue Earth as a platform for change, and to be a bridge between research and action. One Blue Earth seeks to raise public awareness about the consequences of global warming and to educate our communities about current scientific and grass-roots efforts to develop workable solutions to mitigate and reverse climate change. Our goal is to spotlight and partner with specific projects. In our fundraising campaigns, we ask for individual donations of only $1 to encourage more democratic and inclusive participation. The number of people we can motivate to contribute is as important as the amounts we raise. One dollar per person may seem like a drop, but together we can make an ocean.

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Alan Wilcox, a senior manager for the Kaipara Moana Remediation interim management unit, said planting the trees was the foundation of a new intergenerational approach.
First plantings are planned this month. They will be the start of New Zealand’s biggest harbour restoration programme — across 6000 square kilometres of land with more than 8000km of waterways.

Tame Te Rangi, chairman of the governing body Kaipara Moana Remediation joint committee, said it was positive to see the community working towards improving the health of the harbour.

He said two groups had already applied to be involved in harbour improvement through riparian planting and other efforts — the Wairua River group catchment group in Northland and the Hoteo River catchment group in Auckland.

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In forests touched by recent human activity, researchers found a wood dominated by conifers and hemlocks. Whereas in the forest gardens of the Ts'msyen and Coast Salish peoples, the team found a diversity of native fruit and nut trees, including crabapple, hazelnut, cranberry, wild plum, and wild cherries. 

In the gardens' undergrowth, they also noticed a spread of wild ginger and wild rice root.

"These plants never grow together in the wild. It seemed obvious that people put them there to grow all in one spot—like a garden," says ethnobiologist Chelsey Geralda Armstrong from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. 

"Elders and knowledge holders talk about perennial management all the time. It's no surprise these forest gardens continue to grow at archeological village sites that haven't yet been too severely disrupted by settler-colonial land-use."

It's generally accepted that agricultural practices in North America's Pacific Northwest arrived with the dawn of colonization, but that's simply not true. 

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Lorinda Pereira of Te Rarawa is among the growing number of whānau moving back to their whenua to raise their tamariki.

Now the mum of six is teaching her children all they need to know to survive by growing their own mahinga kai.

She fuses the teachings of her ancestors with a relatively new phenomenon of ‘food forests’ to sustain her family and community.

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Light pollution may not be the most pressing environmental issue at the moment, but it is one that comes with serious health, ecological and economic consequences. That’s according to Daniel Mendoza, a researcher and professor who runs the University of Utah’s Dark Skies minor.

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As these milestones reinvigorate a call to action for our politicians and business leaders to act on climate and “ramp up climate ambition,” all eyes inevitably turn to the usual avenues for addressing and adapting to climate change: forests, clean energy and waving goodbye to our toxic relationship with fossil fuels. And while mitigation efforts continue to dominate the conversation, adaptation is ever-increasing in importance in global discussions as extreme weather and its impacts worsen around the world and countries work to build stronger national commitments

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The lab will operate as a commercial kitchen, with a plant drying station and salmon pit for working with and preparing food, baskets and regalia. It will serve as a study and research space and will host university and community events. When complete, HSU will become the first university in California with a space dedicated to uplifting tribal sovereignty through the research, practice and preservation of food sovereignty

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One of the people working behind the scenes on Booker’s Justice for Black Farmers Act was Leah Penniman, cofounder and farm manager of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a nonprofit that is “dedicated to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system.”

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On the wide-open plains of the Sugadaira and Minenohara highlands, red-budded great burnets dot the landscape amid lavender hues of Japanese lady bell flowers, relics of the last Ice Age that persist on the rolling hills of modern-day Japan.

A century ago, rich grasslands accounted for about 13% of the country’s land area, but that number dwindled to just 1% by the early 2000s. A recent study conducted on Japan’s main island of Honshu suggests the key to conserving these vulnerable ecosystems may lie in their past.

By comparing Japan’s old and new grasslands, the study published in Ecological Research finds it may be worth prioritizing the conservation of older grasslands because they have more biodiversity. In the study, scientists define new grasslands as less than 70 years old while the old grasslands can be anywhere from 160 to thousands of years old.

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"We’ve seen the research. The fraction of philanthropic support that reaches Indian Country and Indigenous-led organizations has remained largely unchanged for decades, while institutional philanthropy has come to rely heavily on non-Indigenous-led organizations or intermediaries to carry out their priorities and strategies. But when priorities and strategies don’t emerge from the community and are implanted from the outside, we can find that philanthropic institutions are advancing their own interests while remaining comfortably distant from (and only loosely accountable to) Indigenous Peoples and communities, forgoing any deeper understanding of or respect for tribal sovereignty. Indeed, many philanthropists consider the matter “too complex,” an inadequate and unserious approach, especially when compared to the multitude of federal and philanthropic regulations that must be navigated by Indigenous Peoples and tribes working to develop their communities. "

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Everything we need to survive—food, water, air, shelter—comes from nature, of which we are a part. Fuelled by the sun’s energy, this planet is amazing in its ability to replenish and recycle the basic elements of life.  

Now people are outpacing Earth’s ability to maintain these essential services. Our economic systems not only ignore this unsustainable plunder, they encourage it. That’s led to a 70-per-cent decline in mammal, bird, fish, reptile and amphibian populations over the past 50 years. One million plant and animal species—one-quarter of the global total—now face extinction.

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For decades, the environmental conservation sector has prioritised technical and scientifically oriented knowledge and programs, operating as if the challenges we confront – the twin climate and extinction emergencies, fraying wildlands that increase the likelihood of new pandemics, and the staggering loss of biodiversity that destabilises entire economies – are of an ecological nature. And yet, the environment is not the cause of its own destruction. Society, our laws and economic habits, is at the root of what we call the “environmental problem.” Meaning that it is not so much ecology that we must come to terms with, but ourselves.

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Kati George-Jim carries teachings about the relational cycles of ecosystems, passed on to her by the many women in her families.

The T’suk woman speaks of how salmon are nurtured by natural water systems — when fish bones are left on the side of the beach, animals are able to feed off that same nutrition.

Bears and other animals then expel that waste, which nurtures other relatives on the floor of the forest, and helps plants grow which are then harvested from the land.

It’s one of many teachings that are key to understanding Indigenous food systems in the territories they serve, Jim says.

“Those teachings, that language and the relationship to nutrition all comes back to food,” she says. “Whether it’s feeding us or feeding ecosystems, it’s important to understand that relationship.”

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Ms Tasya is two months away from completing her PhD with the university's applied ecology and conservation group. She is currently a visiting researcher at the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

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Her ambition is to protect South-east Asia's forests and explore different technologies for mapping areas for conservation.

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A new analysis of thousands of native and nonnative Michigan bees shows that the most diverse bee communities have the lowest levels of three common viral pathogens.

University of Michigan researchers netted and trapped more than 4,000 bees from 60 species. The bees were collected at winter squash farms across Michigan, where both managed honeybee colonies and wild native bees pollinate the squash flowers.

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OTTAWA — Passing a new law to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will get First Nations closer to self-determination, National Chief Perry Bellegarde of the Assembly of First Nations said Wednesday.

"The declaration is a tool for building a better relationship with Canada, in which our inherent treaty rights will be affirmed, respected and upheld," Bellegarde said at a virtual forum organized by his advocacy organization to discuss the issue.

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Last week, I suggested that true prosperity is doughnut-shaped, but I did not define what I mean by true prosperity, nor what Doughnut Economics means for this region. I will explore the first of these topics this week and the second next week.

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In celebration of Black History Month we are highlighting ten black individuals from across the country who are crafting powerful narratives around food and sustainability and fighting for community-based approaches to food policy that connect race and culture to our food system. Although communities of color have long played a critical role in shaping the American foodscape, their contributions have historically gone unrecognized in mainstream food culture and policy. These black chefs, farmers, educators, and community activists offer an array of books, documentaries, resources, and organizations to engage with and learn from during Black History Month and in the months to come.

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How To Save A Planet, focuses on two very different farmers who take unique approaches to the same carbon-reduction practice: regenerative agriculture, which is all about enriching the soil by putting more carbon in than your crops take out

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For centuries, indigenous people have been cultivating traditional crops which are not only rich with multi-nutrients but also resilient towards coping with the changing climatic conditions. However, over the years, promotion of modern hybrid crops and chemical agro-inputs has substantially reduced crop yield, degraded land and jeopardised food sovereignty of indigenous communities worldwide

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Eco-schemes are at the core of the green architecture of the Commission’s CAP proposal and are designed to reward farmers for certain agricultural practice considered important in delivering environmental goals.

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Indigenous Peoples from the Arctic and the U.S. Southwest have joined together to tackle issues of food sovereignty in two environmental extremes

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In recent years, First Nation chefs like Marie-Cecile Nottaway have been reclaiming their families’ generations-old recipes to feed new audiences.

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However, agriculture experts advocating for more natural ways of farming have emerged globally to halt the negative impacts of modern agriculture. These side effects have led to long-term pollution of soils, groundwater, rivers, and lakes, the elimination of beneficial insects and other animal species, loss of efficiency in pesticides, and pesticide residues in foods.

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We take care of our environment because the environment takes care of us—this is a common value shared by community members, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, of the 56 Yup’ik villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

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One day in the late summer of 2020, a Winnebago tribal elder was anxious to see her field of dreams — row after row of her beloved Indian corn stretching to the horizon.

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"Ma Ka Hana Ka ‘Ike illustrates that we already have everything we need for success."

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Witehira wants to see a collaborative approach between hapū and iwi, government organisations, NGOs and local authorities, led by the people of the land. “The secret to solving this biodiversity crisis is to hand the kaitiaki status back to indigenous people.”

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In order to address the legacy of structural racism in the farm industry, Penniman is not only dedicated to food equality, but to educating communities in plant-based medicine.

According to Penniman, Black people’s relationship with plant medicine predates the first written account in 1500 B.C., when ancient Egyptians listed the recipes for over 850 herbal medicines on the Ebers Papyrus.

This relationship continued, even after displacement and enslavement.

“Our knowledge of plants traveled with us in the bowels of slave ships and was kept alive in the root and conjure work of the Black American South, in Harriet Tubman’s deft use of wild plants to keep her underground railroad passengers healthy, and in the natural pharmacies of Orisha worshippers,” she says.

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In the year that Via Campesina celebrates the 25th anniversary of the definition, construction and struggle for “Food Sovereignty”, the United Nations (UN) convenes a Cubre (summit meeting) with heads of State, member of large companies and private corporations, transnationals and agribusiness representative to discuss the food systems process..
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A Māori intellectual property researcher says a new approach to leadership and a new structure is needed to carry forward the issues raised in the WAI 262 Fauna and Flora Claim.

Karaitiana Taiuru was one of the speakers at yesterday’s online Kia Whakapūmau symposium, and he says the way the claim expanded to encompass everything from the protection of artworks to genetic modification is a tribute to the vision and world view of the original claimants.

He says the logical way forward is to review the different areas so there can be multiple streams of action.

He wants to see scientists and technologists coming through to stand alongside traditional Māori leadership.

"One of the issues we have now is government look to iwi and looks to established treaty partners rather than experts in the area, and iwi don't always have the skill set to reach out to the experts so I don't know the solution but there needs to be change in the way we as individuals and hapū and iwi come together to make decisions," Mr Taiuru says.

He says whānau, iwi and hapū should be taking measures to protect their own knowledge and their genetic material from abuse.

As the visual language of geography, maps reveal to us just how interrelated everything is in the world and how interrelated we are to each other—something we understand all the more in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.  Geography integrates disciplines like sociology, biology, economics and even psychology by uniting them within the context of location.

We need this level of integration in our thinking and problem-solving as our planet faces dire and complex sustainability challenges—related to environmental viability, social equity, and economic prosperity. To address any one of these concerns requires a holistic view of the others, as they depend on one another. The language of maps, powered by technology and alive with data, can help us create solutions. Maps produced by geographic information system (GIS) software serve as a framework for understanding and identifying where issues must be addressed and how they’re related

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It has brought together groups from the Arctic to Australia. Those from British Columbia, in Canada’s mountainous west, have been at the forefront throughout.

Only two years ago, the provincial government there became the world’s first to adopt into law United Nations guidelines for heightened Indigenous sovereignty. On Wednesday, Canada’s Parliament passed a law, now awaiting a final rubber stamp, to extend those measures nationwide.

It was a stunning victory, decades in the making, that activists are working to repeat in New Zealand — and, perhaps one day, in more recalcitrant Australia, Latin America and even the United States.

“There’s been a lot of movement in the field. It’s happening with different layers of courts, with different legislatures,” said John Borrows, a prominent Canadian legal scholar and a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash Unceded First Nation.

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A study by New Zealand researchers found that Polynesians may have been the first to discover the Earth's southernmost continent, Antarctica, dating back to the seventh century.

But it comes as no shock to some iwi as this had always been known, but methods of recounting indigenous history do not receive the same recognition as western or academic literature.

"We didn't discover this, it's a known narrative," lead researcher Dr Priscilla Wehi told the Herald.

"Our job was to bring together all the information [including oral tradition and grey literature] and communicating it to the world."

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In B.C.’s coastal region trees older than 250 years are defined as old growth. Old-growth forests support a greater diversity of plant and wildlife, including endangered marbled murrelet birds and northern goshawks.

Of the 13 million hectares of old-growth forest left in B.C., the majority consists of high-alpine trees unsuitable for logging. The remaining valley-bottom trees are the crux of the conflict between the forestry industry and conservationists.

There are 3.6 million hectares of old-growth forest available for logging on public lands in B.C. and 50,000 hectares, an area more than eight times the size of Manhattan, are cut every year.

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"Matariki has been a part of our whakapapa and taught to us by our tupuna and used as a guide to help us listen to the Taiao, from our maunga to the ngahere, from our awa and out to the moana; the environment is all connected. Today marks the beginning of Matariki and we are calling for ecological sustainability to be embedded in the curriculum. Matariki is an opportunity for us all to reflect on how we all connect and are a part of the environment and we can start that korero with our tamariki at all our schools.

"The rising of Matariki or Puanga was an environmental indicator for our tÄ«puna and how they would plan and manage their maara kai. Each star in the Matariki cluster represents when the best time is to fish, dive or collect food. They also represent when it is the best time to plant seeds, or harvest crops. The relationship our tupuna had to the whenua and to kai laid the foundations of tino rangatiratanga, which have been handed down to us. It is important that the stories, and teaching of Matariki acknowledges the depths of Mātauranga Māori.

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A few months after her first visit to Calypso, Burk became a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she currently researches the link between health and traditional food practices. In 2020, Burk received the Indigenous Communities Fellowship from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop a business model for implementing biomass-heated (or wood-fired) greenhouses in rural Native villages. The greenhouses will grow fresh produce year-round while also creating local jobs and mitigating wildfire risk.

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A new report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), found that the number of people engaging in conversations and actions on biodiversity loss numbers hundreds of millions and is on the rise. This “eco-wakening,” as the report deems the trend, is most quickly climbing in Asia and emerging markets, with top growth and engagement rates in India, Pakistan and Indonesia, as measured between 2016 and 2020.

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Sugarbush time begins in the fleeting moments when winter first signals its departure, making way for spring. When the daytime temperatures rise above 40 degrees, usually about mid-March, the maple sap begins to flow.

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Mary Big Bull-Lewis sees the way forward for Native people in Washington: ownership of the land and the stories attached to it.

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Complementing this rise of bayanihan, several mapmakers and mapping advocates spearheaded their own initiatives to collate these community pantries and make the information easily accessible to Filipinos who are willing to help.

Taking off from their efforts to map available food deliveries during the quarantine period, members of crowdsourcing initiative “Saan Yan PH” created a platform that allows people to plot locations of community pantries that they’ve spotted in one platform, with the help of geospatial workers from the Ministry of Mapping.

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The reclamation of physical space is a fundamental requirement in resisting colonisation, and is a necessary precondition in the campaign for Aboriginal sovereignty. Last year marked some of the first protests to occur on the Domain parkland — or Djarrbarrgalli in traditional Gadigal language. Gathering in Djarrbarrgalli was momentous for the Indigenous justice movement as it represented the reclamation of traditional land for its original purpose as a meeting place.

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Pourewa is a horticulture initiative by Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei, which is growing produce for its people and the wider community of the area.

The ancestral lands of Pourewa were once occupied in pre-European times by the Ngāti Whātua ancestor, Paora Tūhāere.

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The program, a display of community solidarity operating from the South Bronx —which comprises the neighborhoods with the lowest median income in the state— has also strengthened a sense of identity among individuals that descend from the nations that once ruled the continent.

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Native systems of governance have faced intense challenges since European explorers first landed on these shores. While America's founding fathers took inspiration from Indigenous governments, the relationship between First Nations and the U.S. Government has been defined by fundamental conflicts over sovereignty, territory, citizenship, and individual rights. 

Join the Wisconsin Academy via Zoom for a Roots of Democracy Series discussion with a panel of First Nations scholars who will explore how Indigenous governments have responded to these challenges and the obstacles to sovereignty that still remain in place. This online discussion and Q&A is open to the public with advance online registration (Zoom information is provided upon registration)

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The Climate Action Film Festival, a project by the solar energy company SunCommon in partnership with Basilica Hudson and others, is now kicking off its second edition. The 10-day event brands itself as “the first festival of its kind to exclusively feature storytelling around solutions rather than simply the impacts of climate change.”

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On the wide-open plains of the Sugadaira and Minenohara highlands, red-budded great burnets dot the landscape amid lavender hues of Japanese lady bell flowers, relics of the last Ice Age that persist on the rolling hills of modern-day Japan.

A century ago, rich grasslands accounted for about 13% of the country’s land area, but that number dwindled to just 1% by the early 2000s. A recent study conducted on Japan’s main island of Honshu suggests the key to conserving these vulnerable ecosystems may lie in their past.

By comparing Japan’s old and new grasslands, the study published in Ecological Research finds it may be worth prioritizing the conservation of older grasslands because they have more biodiversity. In the study, scientists define new grasslands as less than 70 years old while the old grasslands can be anywhere from 160 to thousands of years old.

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In one of the first studies of its kind, an analysis of camera-trap data from 15 wildlife preserves in tropical rainforests revealed a previously unknown relationship between the biodiversity of mammals and the forests in which they live.

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The Commission advocates only very modest emission reductions by agriculture over the next 15 years, relying on existing or very near term tweaks to existing technologies. Essentially, it proposes widespread adoption of current best practices. 'Yep, we can probably just about do that but absolutely no more' was the response from the likes of DairyNZ, Beef+Lamb and Federated Farmers.

Meanwhile, many of our competitors abroad are being far more ambitious. For example, the UK and Irish equivalents to Fed Farmers have made big commitments to help their countries tackle the climate crisis

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Aotearoa has two abundant and distinctive climate opportunities: urban form; and agriculture. If we seize both boldly, we will respond effectively to the climate crisis while improving our lives physically, socially, culturally, environmentally and economically.

This column considers the urban opportunity; next week’s the rural one. Our abundance of natural capital is at the heart of both, as last week’s column discussed.

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Few of Earth's freshwater areas remain untouched by humans. More than half of the planet's freshwater river basins have been heavily impacted by human activities, according to a new study, which presents a novel, multi-faceted approach for evaluating biodiversity change at a global scale. Although rivers and lakes cover less than 1% of the planet's surface, they support a substantial component of the planet's biodiversity, including a quarter of Earth's vertebrates. Further, freshwater systems support the functioning and stability of a variety of ecosystems, including those that contribute to human wellbeing. Centuries of human activity - overfishing, non-native species introductions, on-river development, water pollution and climate change - have directly impacted freshwater biodiversity; they all threaten rivers systems and in many of these, they have altered the local species diversity. While evident, little is known about the global scale and magnitude of human impacts on freshwaters.

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The Kai Kōrero pop-up event will showcase a range of industry leaders, who will share their aspirations to support kai production in Te Tai Tokerau. The topics will cover water storage, emerging crops, workforce development, regenerative agriculture, and market access.

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Many practices are associated with regenerative agriculture — anything from no-till practices to pesticide-free farming. What’s more, the concept means different things for different crops in different regions. What is considered regenerative in one location might not qualify for the same label under other agricultural conditions. 

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“It is tempting to garden only for beauty, without regard to the many ecological roles our landscapes must perform. All too often, such narrow gardening goals result in a landscape so low in ecological function that it drains the vitality from the surrounding ecosystem.”

— Douglas Tallamy, “Nature’s Best Hope,” 2019

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Dr Moana Jackson’s keynote for Matike Mai Constitutional Convention, 3rd February 2021 stated that “this was a hui that is part of a long history of constitutionalism and for Māori living in a colonised state to continue to reclaim mana motuhake and rangatiratanga.”

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In April 2020, during the first wave of COVID-19, Amsterdam’s city government announced it would recover from the crisis, and avoid future ones, by embracing the theory of “doughnut economics.” Laid out by British economist Kate Raworth in a 2017 book, the theory argues that 20th century economic thinking is not equipped to deal with the 21st century reality of a planet teetering on the edge of climate breakdown. Instead of equating a growing GDP with a successful society, our goal should be to fit all of human life into what Raworth calls the “sweet spot” between the “social foundation,” where everyone has what they need to live a good life, and the “environmental ceiling.”

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Join Biodiversity for a Livable Climate to learn about a movement that grew from over 40,000 farmers in 2016 to almost 800,000 farmers in 2020 in one of the driest states in India. This work has been successful in part because of a community supported approach where women-run self help groups are in charge of operations

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CIBO, the technology company that delivers decision-ready insights on all U.S. cropland, and Peoples Company, the nationally-recognized land transaction and advisory firm, today announced they will join forces to offer carbon credits on more than 20,000 acres of managed land. The partnership makes Peoples the first land management company to offer carbon credits

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The winning proposals cover a dizzying range of locations and issues — from food sovereignty on a Native American reservation to plant-based diets in metropolitan Beijing. But as I read them, the commonalities seem as prominent as the differences. Embedded in the ideas is an emerging consensus on the critical ingredients for food system reform, regardless where it takes place

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