For millennia Indigenous communities have been guardians of their environments, protecting flora and fauna, using their traditional knowledge and wisdom passed down over generations to live in

For millennia Indigenous communities have been guardians of their environments, protecting flora and fauna, using their traditional knowledge and wisdom passed down over generations to live in balance within their ecosystems. Today Indigenous peoples safeguard 80% of the biodiversity left in the world, and protecting those lands and waters is crucial to mitigating the climate crisis, because those biodiverse areas are among the planet’s major carbon sinks. Indigenous peoples are the ancestral owners of nearly half of the intact forest left across the entire Amazon Basin.
English Subtitles

Nemonte Nenquimo, a leader from the Waorani community in Ecuador and a founding member of the Indigenous-led nonprofit organization Ceibo Alliance and its partner, Amazon Frontlines, discusses why respecting Indigenous people’s internationally recognized rights to decide the future of their territories, cultures, and lives is critically urgent for the protection of our world’s most important rainforest, our climate, and life on our planet.

Nemonte Nenquimo was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people on Earth in 2020 (the only Indigenous woman on the list) and won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize among other major awards, for her struggles against the ravages of oil drilling in her people’s ancestral lands.

Learn more about Amazon Frontlines at https://amazonfrontlines.org

Explore more Bioneers videos.

ENGLISH SUBTITLES    For millennia Indigenous communities have been guardians of their environments, protecting flora and fauna, using their traditional knowledge and wisdom passed down

ENGLISH SUBTITLES    For millennia Indigenous communities have been guardians of their environments, protecting flora and fauna, using their traditional knowledge and wisdom passed down over generations to live in balance within their ecosystems. Today Indigenous peoples safeguard 80% of the biodiversity left in the world, and protecting those lands and waters is crucial to mitigating the climate crisis, because those biodiverse areas are among the planet’s major carbon sinks. Indigenous peoples are the ancestral owners of nearly half of the intact forest left across the entire Amazon Basin.

Nemonte Nenquimo, a leader from the Waorani community in Ecuador and a founding member of Indigenous-led nonprofit organization Ceibo Alliance and its partner, Amazon Frontlines, discusses why respecting Indigenous people’s internationally recognized rights to decide the future of their territories, cultures and lives is critically urgent for the protection of our world’s most important rainforest, our climate, and life on our planet.

Nemonte Nenquimo was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people on Earth in 2020 (the only Indigenous woman on the list) and won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize among other major awards, for her struggles against the ravages of oil drilling in her people’s ancestral lands.

Learn more about Amazon Frontlines at https://amazonfrontlines.org

Explore more Bioneers videos at https://bioneers.org

Suzanne Simard is one of the planet’s most influential, groundbreaking researchers on plant communication and intelligence. As Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British

Suzanne Simard is one of the planet’s most influential, groundbreaking researchers on plant communication and intelligence. As Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of the bestselling book, "Finding the Mother Tree," she has revealed the highly complex ways trees interact and communicate, including using below-ground fungal networks that contribute to forests’ resiliency, adaptability and recovery. Her research has far-reaching implications for how to manage and heal forests from human impacts, including climate change. In this dynamic presentation, she discusses the dire global consequences of logging old-growth rainforests, and nature-based solutions that combine Western science and Indigenous knowledge for preserving and caring for these invaluable forest ecosystems for future generations.

Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia, one of the planet’s leading experts on the synergies and complexities of forests and the development of sustainable forest stewardship practices, Suzanne Simard is a world-renowned pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence whose work has influenced several major filmmakers and novelists. She is the author of the currently best-selling "Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest."

Learn more at http://www.bioneers.org