Indigenous Communities Doing Good

Quench your thirst for good news with inspiring World Water Day stories, and join the fight for clean water and sanitation for all!

An Indigenous-led conservation program in British Columbia, Canada, has successfully increased a caribou herd from 38 individuals to 113 in less than a decade, according to a new study.

Members of nearly 40 Indigenous communities in northern Peru were given training to use smartphone mapping apps that receive early deforestation alerts.

Lockdown restrictions and a reluctance to board crowded buses and trains have encouraged some Indians to rediscover cycling or take it up for the first time. Across the country, 28 cities have focused on creating cycling infrastructure.

By 1889, free-ranging bison numbers dwindled to almost zero. Conservation efforts, responsible farming, and an ambitious relocation effort have afforded a bison population boom in recent years.

Hawaii's Indigenous communities are working to educate settlers and tourists alike on Hawaii and its colonial past and present and creatively raising awareness about decolonization. 

Indigenous groups across Canada have used GPR — along with other site survey technologies such as magnetometry and drones — to identify more than 1,800 possible graves at former residential schools, confirming an open secret.

A new plan called the Amazon Sacred Headwaters initiative proposes the protection of 80% of the Amazon in Peru and Ecuador by 2025, consisting of 35 million hectares (86 million acres) of rainforest.

Indigenous activists have fought time and time again for the sacred nature of both land and water: we’ve seen them fight against the implementation of The Dakota Access Pipeline, the Trans Mountain pipeline, and at the forefront of the anti-Line 3 movement.

Drilling and subsequent infrastructure development in the Arctic would have significant impacts on the tundra and would be disruptive to wildlife like caribou and polar bears.

The Saving Spots initiative has helped triple the leopard population in southern Africa, all through switching to the use of synthetic furs in cultural ceremonies.

Prescribed and intentional fire management practices have long been cultivated by Native American tribes, and they continue to advocate for their effectiveness today.