Harnessing Indigenous Approaches to Conservation

In this episode of "The Bright Idea," 2021 Stanford Bright Award Winner India Logan-Riley details the impacts of the colonial climate crisis and outlines a path forward that incorporates Indigenous rights and knowledge. India is a young Māori climate activist and the co-founder of Te Ara Whatu, a group of indigenous youth from the Pacific and Aotearoa (New Zealand) working for climate action and indigenous sovereignty.

For decades, local communities were often left out of conservation efforts in Africa. Community-based conservation by contrast recognizes that local communities are an integral part of conservation. Join Professor Buzz Thompson and Tom Lalampaa, global leader in community-based conservation and the Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Rangelands Trust, as they discuss how conservation efforts are thriving in Kenya despite persistent and new challenges. The Northern Rangelands Trust brings together 39 community owned and run conservancies in northern and coastal Kenya. These conservancies protect over 10 million acres of land and a diverse array of wildlife, including elephants, lions, giraffes, and black rhino. This land is also home to over 300,000 indigenous people belonging to 18 different ethnic groups. Listen to the full podcast to hear more about how the Northern Rangelands Trust supports resilient community conservancies that protect the lives and livelihoods of their people, secures peace, and conserves nature.

With over 80% of the world’s biodiversity occurring on Indigenous territory, respecting and reviving Indigenous conservation practices will be critical for protecting future ecosystem health. Maria Azhunova, the 2020 Bright Award winner, is an indigenous Buryat conservation leader who harnesses her people's Indigenous knowledge and culture to drive conservation projects in both Eastern Russia and Mongolia. She is the Executive Director of the Baikal Buryat Center for Indigenous Culture and the Director of the Land of Snow Leopard Network. Listen to Professor Buzz Thompson’s discussion with Maria Azhunova about her work to preserve snow leopards and their habitat, the reintroduction of aboriginal Buryat cattle, and a youth program focused on sustaining traditional Buryat culture.

The high-altitude mountainous regions of Pakistan are experiencing unprecedented changes in snowpack and water delivery due to climate change. Stanford’s 2019 Bright Award winner, Aisha Khan, implements on-the-ground projects to strengthen the adaptive resilience of unserved and underserved communities in these remote mountain regions. Listen to Professor Buzz Thompson’s discussion with Ms. Khan to hear about how she empowers communities by helping them to plot their own development trajectories and build capacity for local stewardship, while also promoting gender equality by requiring that women make up at least 40% of the community decision-making board. Ms. Khan will also discuss her work at the national and international levels through her position as executive director of the Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change, a network of organizations and individuals working to promote climate related adaptation in Pakistan.

With Ukraine’s energy scene dominated by monopolistic utilities that leave little room for innovation, green entrepreneurs Andrij and Roman Zinchenko decided to spearhead a green energy revolution in their country. In 2009, the brothers formed Greencubator, a Ukrainian NGO supporting sustainable entrepreneurship, low-carbon innovations, and green economy development in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. Since then, Greencubator has started a variety of successful programs that promote green energy, launched the country’s first municipal energy co-operative, and is currently running Ukraine's largest grant program for climate entrepreneurs. Join Professor Buzz Thompson’s conversation with Andrij and Roman to hear how their efforts promote the goal of energy freedom and energy democracy in Ukraine.

Since founding the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in 1988, Polly Courtice has guided thousands of business leaders to more sustainable business practices. While the Institute no longer has to convince corporate leaders of the importance of these issues, the biggest challenge the Institute faces today is how to scale up solutions quickly enough to address increasing environmental and climate threats. Join Professor Buzz Thompson and Polly Courtice to hear more about the Institute’s projects with businesses, policymakers, and financial institutions to scale up and accelerate solutions for a sustainable economy. Dame Courtice also discusses how COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the flaws in global supply chain assumptions while also providing the opportunity to think more deeply about the role the corporate sector can play in decarbonizing the global economy, protecting and restoring nature, and building more inclusive and resilient societies.

Preserving the Amazon rainforest is critical not only because of the incredible biodiversity there, but also the Amazon’s role in meeting global climate targets. Join Buzz Thompson for a conversation with Tasso Azevedo -- former forestry manager and social environmental entrepreneur who has dedicated most of his career to preserving the Amazon rainforest -- to hear more about how deforestation in the Amazon affects regional and global climate, how we can better value all of the ecosystem services the Amazon provides, and how we can discourage deforestation by making informed consumer choices. Azevedo was the first chief and director general of the Brazilian Forest Service. Under Azevedo's innovative leadership, the rate of deforestation in the Amazon decreased by 75%, and Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 35%. Azevedo has spearheaded efforts to annually map land use and land cover changes in the Amazon. This project has become the longest and most detailed effort to monitor and map changes in land cover and land use in any country in the world. His work has inspired similar efforts around the world.

Over 25 years ago, Gidon Bromberg and Munqeth Mehyar co-founded EcoPeace Middle East (ecopeaceme.org), a singularly unique organization that brings together Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians to advance regional peace and security through environmental sustainability. EcoPeace Middle East is the only collaborative organization of Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians, not only in the environmental field, but in any field. Mr. Bromberg has served as its Israeli co-director and Mr. Mehyar has served as the Jordanian co-director, spearheading resoundingly successful initiatives on water conservation and conflict resolution on the Jordan River, Dead Sea, and Gaza water and sanitation crisis. Join Professor Buzz Thompson in conversation with Mr. Bromberg and Mr. Mehyar on the persistent and new challenges they face in their efforts at cross-border conservation and why, even with tensions between the nations running high, they remain optimistic.