A global boom in major dam construction, mainly in developing countries, is currently underway, with an estimated 3,700 now under construction or in the planning stages. Latin America is ground zero for much of this development.

Río Atoyac in Puebla has gone the way of most rivers in this country: It’s become a contaminated, barely recognizable version of its former self. But something is different about Río Atoyac. That’s because a handful of people cared enough to fight for it. The result: Ríos Vivos (Rivers Alive) Atoyac Xicome Forum + Festival, the […]

This year The Esperanza Project will celebrate nine years of life – nine years of bringing inspiration and hope to the work of environmental and indigenous rights journalism. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, and poised to take our work to the next level. Please read on to see our highlights, our exciting plans for […]

“Coyote” Alberto Ruz Buenfil has devoted his life to nurturing the bonds that connect humans with the place we inhabit and its other inhabitants, from the beaver to the bee to the wind and the water. His ethic has been influenced by and has in turn influenced movements toward intentional communities, ecovillages and bioregionalism. He […]

At the request of the Mamos, the Dalai Lamas of the Sierra Nevada, please share this message far and wide. From the mist-shrouded peaks of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, I’m witnessing an unprecedented gathering of Indigenous leaders and environmental defenders who have come together from five continents to protect a river sacred to […]

Para leer este artículo en Español ir a Defendiendo lo Sagrado en Colombia: Un Llamado a la Acción Today I write to you from the “Heart of the World,” the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, where Indigenous communities—the Arhuaco, Kogi, Wiwa, and Kankuamo peoples—are facing intensifying violence after decades fighting to defend their land and […]

Editor’s note: Our friends at Deceleration, a first-rate independent online journal in San Antonio, Texas, traveled to the Black Hills of South Dakota to cover WILD12, also known as the 12th World Wilderness Congress, a global gathering focused on wilderness conservation and environmental leadership. Check out more of their extensive coverage HERE. RAPID CITY, S.D.—Humanity […]

The Kunagua Network in the mountains south of Bogotá hosted the 17th edition of this gathering, a Colombian version of the Vision Council, this time with the purpose of preserving and regenerating the Colombian paramos. Text by José Aristizábal G. with editions from Tracy Barnett and Angélica Almazán. SUMAPAZ, COLOMBIA — On the cool, rolling […]

By Tracy L. Barnett and Angélica AlmazánWith collaboration by Noelle Romero and Martín Buen Viaje Alberto Ruz Buenfil, the inspiration for The Esperanza Project* and many other initiatives to create the better world we know is possible, passed away on Dec. 7, 2023, after a courageous three-year “transit through the Tropic of Cancer” as he […]

By Tracy L. Barnett and Hernan Vilchez Tata Erasmo Gartesullo, a traditional healer from the Qhara Qhara community of Poroma in the foothills of the Bolivian Andes north of Sucre, knows his medicine like he knows his own family. In fact it was his father, the amauta or wise man of the community, who taught […]

By Tracy L. Barnett and Hernán Vilchezwith production by José Antonio Calfínphotos from the Esperanza Project film “Legacy of the Andes” For the Mapuche people of Chile and Argentina’s Patagonia region — or Wallmapu, as its original inhabitants know their territory —, the warnings of the pandemic began in the form of a flower. When […]

By Tracy L. Barnett and Hernán Vilchezwith production by José Antonio Calfínphotos from the Esperanza Project film “Legacy of the Andes” Deep in the otherworldly landscape of Northern Chile’s Atacama Desert – the world’s driest non-polar territory – the Atacameño or Lickanantay people managed a delicate balance for more than 12,000 years, developing a sophisticated […]

By Tracy L. Barnett and Hernán Vilchezwith production by José Huamánphotos from the Esperanza Project film “Legacy of the Andes” High up in the Andean mists near the sacred mountain of Wamanlipa, a long day’s journey from Cusco, lie the windswept communities of the emblematic Q’ero people, believed to be the last living descendants of […]

Fifty years ago, on Feb. 27, 1973, around 200 Native treaty rights defenders, among them American Indian Movement leaders, occupied the trading post of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The site was historically significant for the 1890 massacre there in which federal troops killed up to 300 Lakota men, women and children. […]

When I visited the floating palafito fishing village of Nueva Venecia in early 2021, I found myself staring out across the calm, reflective expanse of the coastal lagoon complex known as the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta. Looking back at that moment, I understand why Ernesto Mancera has spent the past 35 years studying the region’s mangroves […]

Last week we lost a powerful voice in the Water Protector and Climate Justice movements. Joye Braun (Wambli Wiyan Ka’win) of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Nation passed away at her home on Sunday, November 13th. Her untimely death at 53 leaves a void that no one can fill.  Esperanza Project contributing editor Talli Nauman, […]

Renowned artists, healers, wisdom keepers, scientists and changemakers will be among the participants in a unique transformational gathering that celebrates its 16th encounter with “Embrace of the Amate” in Tepoztlan, Morelos — returning to the place where it was born.  The Vision Council has been carried out for more than 30 years and “has been […]

This summer, Hot Springs citizens scored a breakthrough: They collected enough signatures to obtain a ballot measure that would declare mining a “nuisance” in Fall River County.

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 […]

SILVER CITY, South Dakota — The moment the U.S. Forest Service posted its July notice of a draft decision to permit gold prospecting at Jenny Gulch here in the Black Hills, tribes, water protectors and treaty rights defenders turned out in droves to ward off the project and others like it. The Black Hills make […]