In Papua New Guinea, Indigenous communities adopt conservation deeds to protect their lands on their own terms. Tanya Zeriga and Mavis Jimbudo . In Papua New Guinea, land-holding clans are adopting conservation deeds to implement conservation projects. Why are they choosing to use contract law (legally binding agreements between parties, creating mutual obligations) over government-sanctioned

In a remote area of northwestern Pakistan, the Kalash community has maintained harmony with its territory of life. WORDS AND IMAGES Ajaz Ahmed      The Kalash or Kalasha people are a distinctive Indo-Aryan community nestled in the Hindu Kush mountain range, in Chitral District of Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. For the past fifteen years, I

In Aotearoa, a marae-based educational program rebuilds connection with ancestral land and water in a changing social and environmental context. WORDS Suz Te Tai, Kim Peita, and Krushil Watene | IMAGES Suz Te Tai . The story of the Māori hapū (tribal kin-community) of Ngāti Manu in Aotearoa New Zealand begins in Te Hiku o

In a Québec watershed, a student documents the transformation of territories of life into toxic dumping grounds — and back. Alex DePani   The Chateauguay River watershed is a transboundary water catchment area, draining rainwater and snowmelt from the high peaks of the Adirondack Mountains in New York State to the flat, fertile lands extending

A walk through one of France’s land commons reveals that the right to self-govern ensures the responsible management of natural resources. Gretchen Walters and Alain Levet . . The Stevenson Trail, a meandering 220 km path across rural central France, passes through the forests of the Mercoire massif, in the department of Lozère. The Mercoire,

Une promenade dans l’un des communs fonciers montre que le droit à l’autonomie garantit une gestion responsable des ressources naturelles. Gretchen Walters et Alain Levet . Le chemin de Stevenson, un sentier sinueux de 220 km à travers le centre de la France, passe par les forêts du massif de Mercoire, dans le département de

Village women succeed where the men had failed in restoring the community’s fisheries. WORDS Kanna K. Siripurapu and Aniket Bambole | IMAGES Kanna K. Siripurapu . On the northeastern side of Maharashtra State, India, lies Gadchiroli district, an area endowed with rich natural resources (about seventy percent of the land area is under forest cover)

A community advocates for land rights and protects its ancestral forest with mapping technology. WORDS AND IMAGES Rudo Kemper   The Ogiek of Mount Elgon are an Indigenous group native to western Kenya. They have lived across the vast swathe of moorland and forests of Mount Elgon since before colonial occupation and the subsequent creation

A forest community in Gabon affirms its will for self-determination and responsible management of its ancestral land. WORDS Benjamin Evine-Binet | IMAGES Nsombou Abalghe-Dzal Association   Ours is a real story, one both lived and shaped by the Kota community of Massaha — a group of villages located in the Ogooué-Ivindo province of northeastern Gabon,

Rising sea levels threaten a local community’s biocultural heritage and the residents’ right to an ecologically responsible way of life. WORDS AND IMAGES Thor Morales   . Coconut palm trees stand tall, their roots kissed by the sea in its incessant going back and forth. Soon these tropical palms will be wiped out by the