Indigenous Projects on Land Governance and Rights of Nature

Directory

Sourced and reworked from https://islands-of-coherence.com/map-list, with the assistance of z.ai, prompted by Michel Bauwens.

Indigenous Projects — Land, Territorial Governance & Rights of Nature

Name	URL	Description
Yurok Tribe	https://www.yuroktribe.org	Largest federally recognised tribe in California. Secured legal personhood for the Klamath River, recognising the river's inherent rights — a landmark in Rights of Nature jurisprudence on the US west coast.
NDN Collective	https://ndncollective.org	Indigenous-led organisation on Pine Ridge dedicated to building Indigenous power through organising, activism, and philanthropy. Runs the LANDBACK campaign — the meta-political framework for returning Indigenous land to Indigenous hands.
Indigenous Climate Action	https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com	Indigenous-led climate justice network on Treaty 6 territory (Canada), guided by knowledge keepers, water protectors, and land defenders. Frames climate solutions within Indigenous rights and knowledge systems.
Soul Fire Farm	https://www.soulfirefarm.org	Afro-Indigenous farming and training centre in the Hudson Valley (Grafton, NY), co-founded by Leah Penniman. Committed to food sovereignty, ending racism in the food system, and training the next generation of Black and Indigenous farmers.
Yorenka Tasorentsi Institute	https://yorenkatasorentsi.org	Indigenous-led institute in Acre, Brazil, founded by Ashaninka leader Benki Piyãko. Integrates traditional knowledge with modern techniques: reforestation, agroforestry, wildlife breeding for reintroduction, and cultural revitalisation across degraded Amazon landscapes.
Shipibo Conibo Center	https://www.shipiboconibo.org	Cultural organisation in Harlem, NYC, promoting Shipibo-Konibo-Xetebo self-determination and territorial sovereignty. Runs a legal program, healers' union (ASOMASHK), ethnobotanical research, and the Yarinacocha Declaration against spiritual extractivism.
Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund	https://imc.fund	Indigenous-led philanthropic vehicle for the sovereign protection and regeneration of sacred medicines, ecologies, and traditional knowledges. Works to ensure community resilience against cultural appropriation and environmental extractivism.
Hartman Deetz / UNDRIP Wampum Belt (Mashpee Wampanoag)	https://www.unwampumbelt.com	A "modern wampum belt" designed by Mashpee Wampanoag artist Hartman Deetz and commissioned by Michelle Cook (Diné). Each of the 46 beads represents one article of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — wampum as living law, land-based practice, and art simultaneously.
Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui / Te Pou Tupua	https://www.tepoutupua.nz	The Whanganui River (Te Awa Tupua) was declared a legal person under the Te Awa Tupua Act 2017 (NZ). Te Pou Tupua is its statutory voice; Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui are the human guardians acting as the river's representatives — mountains to sea.
Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation (GTANW)	https://transformativepathways.net/about/partners/the-autonomous-territorial-government-of-the-wampis-nation-gtanw	Wampís Indigenous Nation formed their autonomous government in 2015 to govern, manage, and protect 1.3 million hectares of rainforest across the Santiago/Kanus and Morona/Kankaim river basins in northern Peru. Their court-enforced consent power drove oil operations off Block 64.
Mendha-Lekha Gram Sabha	https://communityconservedareas.org/data/show/24	A Gond and Koya village in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra — effectively sovereign in practice since 1987. In 2009, became the first village in India to receive Community Forest Rights (CFR) title under the Forest Rights Act; combined with Gramdan, land is locked into the commons in perpetuity.
Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana (Kukama Women's Federation)	https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/rights-of-maranon-river-case	Federation of Kukama-Kukamiria women from 28 communities on the Marañón River in Peru's northern Amazon. Filed a groundbreaking lawsuit; in 2024 a Peruvian court named them the river's legal guardians and recognised the Marañón's inherent rights to exist, flow, and live free from pollution.
Te Wānanga o Raukawa	https://www.wananga.com	Iwi-chartered kaupapa Māori tertiary institution in Ōtaki, Aotearoa. Born from a 25-year tribal development plan by Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Raukawa, and Ngāti Toa; offers degrees and diplomas in te reo Māori, iwi and hapū studies — education as nation-building.
Guaraní Autonomous Government of Charagua Iyambae	https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/latin-american-research-review/article/selfgovernance-in-bolivias-first-indigenous-autonomy-charagua/DDF2119168F267B3D3583451618CBCDA	Bolivia's first Indigenous autonomous government (2015). Built by referendum among the Guaraní majority; its Capitán Grande assembly binds its own executive — a functioning Indigenous autonomy within the plurinational state.
Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca (CRIC)	https://www.cric-colombia.org/portal	One of Colombia's oldest and largest Indigenous movements. Holds 84 inalienable resguardos (collective land titles). An unarmed Indigenous Guard (Guardia Indígena) enforces territorial integrity and autonomy against armed actors.
Sogorea Te' Land Trust	https://sogoreate-landtrust.org	Urban Indigenous-women-led land trust rematriating Lisjan Ohlone territory (East Bay, California). The Shuumi Land Tax — a voluntary reciprocity payment by non-Indigenous residents — functions as a budget line for land return, making reparations operational.
Korchi Maha Gramsabha	https://vikalpsangam.org/article/maha-gramsabha-a-unique-initiative-in-central-india	Federation of ~90 CFR-titled gram sabhas (village assemblies) in Korchi taluka, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. Has blocked mining leases for over a decade through collective assertion of Community Forest Rights and democratic self-governance.
Sarayaku / Tayjasaruta	https://sarayaku.org	Kichwa people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Kawsak Sacha (Living Forest) Declaration makes the living forest itself the founding law — the forest is a conscious being with rights. Built on the Sarayaku v. Ecuador Inter-American Court victory.
Niyamgiri Dongria Kondh Gram Sabhas	https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2013/04/india-landmark-supreme-court-ruling-great-victory-indigenous-rights	Dongria Kondh tribal villages on Niyamgiri Hills, Odisha, India. A unanimous "No" vote across all 12 gram sabhas in 2013 rejected Vedanta/Sterlite's bauxite mine — and became Supreme Court case law affirming tribal consent under the Forest Rights Act.
Snowchange Cooperative	https://www.snowchange.org	Finland-based Indigenous/traditional-knowledge cooperative that owns the land it rewilds. Runs the Landscape Rewilding Programme restoring peatlands, wetlands, and forests across the Arctic and Boreal. Flagship site Linnunsuo (110 ha restored wetland) in North Karelia. Co-management on the main watershed remains advisory rather than binding.
Kwaxala / Kwiakah Living Forest Fund	https://www.kwaxala.com	Indigenous fixed-majority-owned initiative (Kwiakah First Nation as founding equity partner). Transforms at-risk forests into investment assets where the Indigenous Forest Partner holds significant majority equity and autonomous stewardship. Sovereignty clause in the charter; however, the structure remains Crown-revocable and carbon-market-bound.
Aadhimalai Producer Company	https://www.aadhimalai.in	Owned by ~4,500 Adivasi producer-shareholders in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, South India. Collects, processes, and markets forest and agricultural produce directly from tribal communities. Forest control still held by the state rather than the producers.
Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance (Cuencas Sagradas)	https://cuencasagradas.org/en	Alliance of ~30 Indigenous nationalities across the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon, deciding by assembly. Works for the permanent protection of the Sacred Headwaters bioregion — a 35-million-hectare corridor of megadiverse headwater forests.
iTaukei Land Trust Board	https://tltb.com.fj	Holds 91% of Fiji's land inalienably in trust for iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) landowners. Collects and distributes lease premiums, rents, and royalties. The governing statute was rewritten twice in three years, making it the clearest test case of granted-by durability — the land tenure is robust, but statutory durability remains contested.