Funders launch pledge to support tribal-led restoration & conservation efforts in the U.S.
Fifteen funders have already committed $102.5 million to support the Tribal Nations Conservation Pledge goals across the country since its launch in March.
Indigenous rights & well-being
This archive covers documented progress on Indigenous rights, sovereignty, land protection, cultural preservation, and community health. Stories here highlight policy wins, legal milestones, and Indigenous-led initiatives that are improving lives and strengthening self-determination around the world.
Ecuador project aims to protect Yasuní park borders & Indigenous peoples
The Yasuní Strip of Diversity and Life was created to protect the area’s Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation and to uphold the rights of Indigenous and farming communities in the region.
Ecuador court upholds ‘rights of nature,’ blocks Intag Valley copper mine
A provincial court recognized that the mining companies violated the communities’ constitutional right to consultation and the rights of nature guaranteed by Ecuador’s Constitution since 2008.
Colombia and Ecuador create alert system to protect Indigenous Awá from armed groups
Since last August, thousands of Awá have been forcibly displaced or suffered threats, intimidation, torture or forced recruitment by organized crime groups participating in drug trafficking and illegal mining.
Brazil moves to oust illegal miners from Indigenous lands in the Amazon
The invasion of miners has contributed to the spread of malaria among the Yanomami, with devastating consequences
Brazil’s President Lula issues six decrees revoking or altering predecessor’s anti-environment-and-Indigenous measures
One of the decrees annuls mining in Indigenous lands and protected areas, another resumes plans to combat deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, and a third reinstates the Amazon Fund.
The Wirangu people now have native title over part of their traditional lands in South Australia
The Wirangu have been granted native title to more than 5,000 square kilometres of land on South Australia’s west coast.
After 14 years of advocacy, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s president signs new Indigenous peoples law
The country’s Indigenous pygmy people are now legally recognized as a distinct people with rights and must consent before the government and industries can exploit their land.
Māori tribe secures landmark apology and compensation over colonial atrocities
Ngāti Maniapoto won a landmark settlement on September 23, 2022, when New Zealand’s parliament unanimously returned 36 culturally significant sites and pledged NZ$177 million in redress to the Waikato-based iwi. Hundreds of members rode a charter train nine hours to Wellington to witness it, filling the public gallery with waiata and haka as the vote passed. The crown formally apologized for indiscriminate killings during the Waikato Wars and generations of deprivation that followed. For the nearly 46,000 iwi members, it was recognition that 30 years of negotiation had been worth sustaining. As Indigenous communities from Jamaica to the United States press for accountability, New Zealand’s framework shows that binding reparations are possible when political will meets sustained advocacy.
Indigenous Shuar community in Ecuador wins decades-long battle to protect land
Ecuador’s National System of Protected Areas now includes the 13,583-acre ancestral Tiwi Nunka Forest in the country’s south.