In November, a group of traditional fishers met on the banks of the Cascaloa Ciénaga. Nilton Chacon, a leader of a local association of artisanal fishers, stood to speak.

Over the past 150 years, poor land management practices, driven by industrial agriculture, has resulted in the loss of half of the earth’s topsoil. Soil is becoming so degraded that some scientists are predicting that in some parts of the world, such as the UK, we only have 60 harvests left. More carbon has been […]

Liora Adler is a visionary social actionist, educator, facilitator, mentor, event organizer and dancer. Raised during the ’60s social movements in the US, she came to understand that protest alone was inadequate for making substantive societal changes. Consequently, throughout the ’70’s and ’80s she explored supportive community building that provided both for physical needs and the basic human need for belonging.

Since the turn of the century humans have been building communities structured on technological and industrial practices that are steadily destroying the ecosystems that support life on this planet.  “Retrotopia”** is an alternative vision that supports the re-emergence of sustainable community living focused on ecosystem regeneration and restoration. Register HERE to join us for this weekend’s lineup […]

This monumental monthlong convergence features conversations with indigenous visionaries and activists, eco-elders in the fields of bioregionalism, ecovillage design, permaculture, earth-regeneration and humans we see as helping us connect to our animist roots while restoring elements of sacred culture. 

Sept. 8, 2016, was a tragic day. At a massive event on that day, Enrique Peña Nieto, president of the country, dramatically announced that he was a daily consumer of Coca~Cola. His words were celebrated with applause and laughter by businessmen and officials who listened to him; meanwhile, 6.4 million citizens were suffering from diabetes, […]

Author, public speaker and self-described “Emergency Planetary Technician” Albert Bates is a master at drawing wisdom from a vast variety of sources. Recently he drew my attention to this excellent column that he penned last year, drawing on the great Sauk leader Black Hawk to help us envision one possible outcome from our current climate […]

Our Top 10 stories of 2019 reflect the hunger for fresh ideas and different voices — people who are tackling the issues of climate change, environmental destruction, mass migration, food security, femicide and human rights — especially indigenous rights. The popularity of these stories also show that people are ready for younger and alternative visions — and those, as you may have noticed, are our specialty.

Don Manuel García Pacheco stands at the edge of the field he has known since his birth more than six decades ago, when the land was plowed by oxen. He smiles broadly as he surveys the industrious crew that has come from all over the world to work in his cornfield. “Estoy feliz como un lombriz,” he declares in typical campesino parlance – I’m happy as an earthworm.

Editor’s note: One of my most inspiring assignments so far this year brought together two important movements for the healing of the Earth: the first Ecosystem Restoration Camp in the Americas, and Vía Orgánica, the host organization. I went on to write about them both for Mongabay Latin America and the brand-new issue of Permaculture […]

As permaculture educator and community organizer Matthew Trumm was evacuating from the raging Camp Fire in Northern California last November, his mind turned to a video he’d seen recently with one of his heroes, the ecosystem restoration expert and filmmaker John D. Liu. Just the week before, Liu had invited him to serve on a […]

Tikkun Eco Center works with Mexican villages to solve water crisis

SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, MÉXICO – Victoria Collier and Ben Ptashnik are a couple with a vision: they want to teach how to create self-sustaining ecological community where people can grow food, disengage from destructive systems with the use of renewable energy and green building, and create community projects that benefit everyone while raising the […]

Select Recordings of Event AND Resources Will be Uploaded Soon! Cheryl Angel is an indigenous leader, Lakota (Sioux) elder, mother of five children, and devoted water protector who helped initiate and maintain the Standing Rock camp from April 2016 until its forced dismantling. She was vital in the nonviolent resistance to the Dakota Access and Keystone XL […]

Regardless of whether or not one belongs to a First Nation, more and more people and communities are seeking to resume a good life, that is, to achieve common and personal well-being in coexistence with our living planet. Throughout history, and now more than ever, learning from First Nations and the traditional knowledge they offer may be the key to our resilience as living beings “to survive well together” in the Anthropocene.

“Restoration of habitats and regenerative, localized food production need to be foundational in our economies moving forward. We should be turning resources towards these efforts with the same vigor the destruction and depletion was carried out with. Sucking the life out of our lands while polluting the water to grow human fodder void of nutrition […]

From the emblematic Magdalena River, which begins high in the Andes as a Sacred Source and descends into the industrial valleys to a overused and contaminated course, to the groundbreaking case of the Atrato River, which gained international attention in 2017 when it was granted the rights of personhood under Colombia’s Rights of Nature law, Colombia’s rivers have much to teach us.

We’ve been fighting the deadliest virus of all for a decade now: the epidemic of fear. Join us on Earth Day as we take our regenerative journalism to the next level.

Hamstrung by the bureaucracy in their hometown of Boulder, Colo., permaculture designer Zia Parker and biodynamic agriculture teacher Roshni McEldowney headed south to Vilcabamba, Ecuador, where a culture respecting the Rights of Mother Earth is flourishing.

Coyote Alberto Ruz Reports from People’s Summit, Peace Village and International Rights of Nature Tribunal