The agroecological systems of farmers, growers, and Indigenous Peoples everywhere have shaped and cared for landscapes for millennia. Ecosystems that we may perceive as pristine wildernesses are in fact culturally rich, productive, and carefully managed landscapes which have supported both people and wildlife since time immemorial thanks to the stewardship of those living there. [...]
Nemonte Nenquimo is an Indigenous leader of the Waorani people in the Ecuadorean Amazon province of Pastaza, one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth. Nemonte gained global attention when she led a successful court action to block a proposal for oil exploration and drilling on 500,000 acres of Waorani land. Her tireless and courageous [...]
2021 has presented many challenges for conservation, with COVID-19 continuing to prevent safe engagement with communities, causing delays or cancellations to in-person events, and affecting marginalised communities the hardest. However, our team at Synchronicity Earth continue to be inspired by the resilience and resourcefulness of our partners, who continue to do extraordinary work to [...]
Cliquez ici pour lire cet article en français. Merline Touko Tchoko, Cameroonian communications expert and Synchronicity Earth consultant, spent eight days alongside our Congo Basin Programme partners taking part in the first ‘Mini-Congress’ for nature in Kinshasa, timed to coincide with the IUCN World Conservation Congress being held in Marseille. Through the eyes and [...]
Miriam Supuma has been working for over ten years with conservation organisations in Papua New Guinea, a country that comprises 1% of the world’s land but around 7% of its biodiversity. Miriam joined Synchronicity Earth in April 2021 to lead its Biocultural Diversity Programme (formerly the Flourishing Diversity Programme), which focuses on the recognition [...]
The latest in our series of Deeper Thinking webinars focused on the concept of Flourishing Diversity, which lies at the heart of our newly unveiled Biocultural Diversity Programme (formerly the Flourishing Diversity Programme). We were joined by an inspiring panel of speakers who shared their knowledge and experience, exploring what flourishing diversity means to [...]
Rivers are the planet’s arteries of life and are intrinsically linked to human well-being, history, culture, spirituality and politics. Yet, our legal system has largely proven to be ill-equipped to protect the world’s rivers and their inhabitants. A growing global movement sets out to change this by legally recognising and implementing the inherent rights [...]
Sophie Grange-Chamfray, Knowledge & Learning Manager at Synchronicity Earth, dives into the importance of local communities and Indigenous Peoples as guardians of nature, and the historical importance of the acceptance in the first instance of a proposed law to promote and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Democratic Republic of Congo in [...]
The world’s largest rubber processor has called for a ‘cease and desist’ on deforestation in a rubber plantation approaching the edge of Cameroon’s Dja Biosphere Reserve. This is in response to a statement from local communities and pressure from international NGOs about unsustainable environmental practices, lack of transparency, and negative impacts on local communities. [...]
Dr Jerome Lewis is a Reader in Social Anthropology at University College London. He has undergraduate and doctoral degrees in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and 25 years of research experience working with Pygmy hunter-gatherers and former hunter-gatherers in the Congo Basin. He is Co-Director of the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) [...]