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  • The bold plan to save Africa's largest forest

    Under an innovative scheme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, indigenous communities are obtaining the legal right to own and manage the forests where they reside. This ownership has shown success in slowing deforestation of the Congo rainforest and creating new economic opportunities for residents in these villages. “Rather than just being an add-on, community forestry is now being considered as a mainstream model for forest management,” says a coordinator for the Rainforest Foundation UK.

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  • An Indigenous practice may be key to preventing wildfires

    Indigenous Peoples Burn Network, is a collaboration of Native nations, academic researchers, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations that advocate for and train fire-lighters in the indigenous practices of controlled forest burns. Under careful supervision, fire-lighters spread lines of fire beneath trees to create fuel-free areas and protect old growth trees from burning. Controlled burns preserve resources that are part of Native cultures, encourage and protect wildlife and biodiversity, and decrease the frequency of largescale, out-of-control forest fires.

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  • Homicides dropped after Philly gangs signed a 1974 peace pact. What can we learn from the org that brokered the truce?

    The House of Umoja in West Philadelphia, created in the late 1960s in response to high rates of gang violence, succeeded in helping thousands of young men through a residential treatment program, mediating disputes peacefully, and brokering a gang truce credited with lowering Philadelphia violence in the 1970s. The program was based on Afrocentric customs and family structure (its name means unity in Swahili). The grandson of the founders is now trying to revive the home as part of the city's multiple anti-violence initiatives.

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  • Fighting COVID-19 with Ancestral Wisdom in the Amazon

    The Siekopai people have used plants and herbal remedies to treat diseases for years. As the COVID-19 pandemic entered their community, they turned to the ancient medicine of their ancestors to help combat symptoms of the virus and boost the immune system.

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  • How Canada's first Indigenous coast guard program is already saving lives

    The Canadian Coast Guard is building a working relationship with indigenous communities that live on the coast of British Columbia, in order to better coordinate rescue efforts. The indigenous tribes "have intimate knowledge of the geography, which allows them to expertly respond to emergencies on the water." The result has been the formation of the Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary.

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  • How a program to support Latino caregivers may have discovered a new wave of patients

    The Chicago-based Latino Alzheimer's and Memory Disorders Alliance (LAMDA) has helped connect "Latinos who have memory diseases with clinical support" by focusing on creating connections and using memory-health surveys. The program relies on bicultural community health promoters who are embedded within the community and visit places such as health fairs, nursing home lobbies and churches to offer resources and "conduct memory tests and evaluations on at-risk elders."

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  • How To Feed The World Without Destroying It

    The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the fragility of the U.S. food supply chain, yet for indigenous led-operations there has been little interruption thanks to practices that rely on shorter supply chains that "work with local ecosystems, not against them." In Virginia, one farmer is using the lessons from this traditional knowledge to create a small-scale farming collective.

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  • The Casino That Farms Its Own Food

    The Quapaw tribe runs the Downstream Casino Resort in Oklahoma where they combine Indigenous food and farming knowledge with modern hotel operations. They have seven greenhouses and two gardens with 20 varieties of vegetables and herbs that cultivate about 6,000 pounds of food per year for the hotel and casino. They also have their own meat packing and processing plant, coffee roasting program, brewery, and farmers market. By creating a system of locally sourced and sustainably raised food, the Quapaw are reclaiming their land and food sovereignty.

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  • This sacred bean saved an indigenous clan from climate calamity

    A community gardening project growing the guajiro bean has allowed Wayuu farmers in the Colombian desert to achieve food security despite the effects of climate change and external pressures. While scaling this agricultural success to other Indigenous clans can be difficult, using a low-tech irrigation system and red earthworm compost has allowed one settlement to feed its community and make their soil fertile again.

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  • An ancient people with a modern climate plan

    The Swinomish tribe in Washington state is combining traditional knowledge and science to combat the effects of climate change and improve the health of its land, water, and people. In recent years, their salmon harvest has diminished due to warming waters, but they’ve instituted salmon recovery efforts by restoring tidelands and channels and planting trees along stream beds to cool the waters. Their focus on ecosystem and community health could be a model for other Indigenous tribes looking to create their own climate plans.

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