Initiatives
Global efforts for a vibrant and habitable future Earth
Nia Tero supports initiatives globally that align with the organization’s mission and values.
From building infrastructure on-site with Indigenous partners to developing a network of Indigenous mediamakers, take a closer look at our initiatives and learn how you can get involved.
Enacting programs with a commitment to Indigenous Peoples' guardianship.
COP16 "Promise" Campaign
At COP16, the 2024 UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Nia Tero invited people to take action and support the "Promise" campaign, amplifying that Indigenous Peoples' guardianship is essential to achieving the 30x30 target to protect 30% of the planet by 2030.
As COP16 commenced in Cali, Colombia on October 21, the Promise Campaign brought to the forefront that it is essential for policymakers to work with Indigenous Peoples in order to achieve the ambitious 30x30 target to protect 30% of Earth by 2030. Indigenous Peoples manage and sustain approximately 40% of our planet’s intact ecosystems and landscapes – and their leadership is critical to fulfilling the promise of 30x30.
Featuring voices and images of Indigenous Peoples from four continents and the Pacific Islands, “Promise” is a short video that was shared throughout COP16 to drive attention to the crucial role of Indigenous Peoples’ guardianship in protecting Earth’s biodiversity. Co-produced by the Achuar Nation of Ecuador and Nia Tero, and narrated in Achuar with English and Spanish subtitles, the film focuses on the true extent of Indigenous Peoples’ guardianship of the healthiest places on Earth and the galvanizing potential that their deep knowledge systems hold for the planet and for humanity.
Visit the campaign website to learn more about how you can continue supporting these efforts during and beyond COP16.
Photo by JJ Javier.
Infrastructure & Innovation
Around the world, our Indigenous partners are leading efforts to safeguard the full ecological vigor of their territories, including thriving and diverse ecosystems, globally significant carbon stocks, and the vast and invaluable cultural diversity of Indigenous societies.
Our Infrastructure & Innovation work is focused on amplifying and accelerating Indigenous technologies including transportation, communications, and monitoring systems that build autonomy and sovereignty.
Our Infrastructure & Innovation strategy focuses on two thematic priorities identified by our external regional advisory councils, and our program team partners:
- Transportation and Energy
- Technology
Starting with initial R&D investments in 2020, our efforts have continued to mature and integrate closely with our regional strategies, as well as our crosscutting work in Program Related Investments (PRIs) and through Technodigenous.
Kara Solar
Kara Solar is a solar-powered river transportation, energy, and community enterprise initiative in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Since 2012, a team of engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs, together with Achuar community members and leaders, have been working together on this shared dream.
Our work takes three complimentary and interconnected approaches: infrastructure, people, planning. The initiative is based on the belief that the best way to preserve the rainforest is to empower its Indigenous custodians. By transforming energy use in vulnerable territories, we are activating resilient technological and socio-economic alternatives to degradation and exploitation.
Kin Theory
A database and community for Indigenous creatives and media makers.
Kin Theory is a database for Indigenous media makers, developed and launched through Nia Tero's storytelling initiatives. We are proud to share that in 2024, the Kin Theory database and community transitioned to its new home with imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.
Since its inception, the goal of Kin Theory was to foster community with and among Indigenous creatives while increasing visibility, hiring opportunities, and collaborations in global media industries. While prioritizing Indigenous Peoples, Kin Theory actively sought to build coalition with other artists in the global majority, including Black, Latinx, Asian, and people of color, as well as people who are undocumented, femme, trans, and nonbinary people, LGBTQIA+ people, and people with disabilities.
Reciprocity Project
Facing a climate crisis, Reciprocity Project embraces Indigenous value systems created in kinship with Earth.
Reciprocity Project is both a two-season short film series and multimedia platform, made in partnership with Indigenous storytellers and their communities worldwide. It invites learning from time honored and current Indigenous ways of being. Each project is created by media makers and their communities within their home territories.
The first season invited Indigenous creators to explore what reciprocity means to them and their communities. Season Two is a journey through return.
Technodigenous
Developing and co-creating solutions embracing time-tested Indigenous knowledge and leadership.
Technodigenous is a space to share knowledge, experiences, ideas, and inspiration while building a community of practitioners, technologists, and thinkers who can work together co-creating Indigenous-led solutions to strengthen Indigenous Peoples rights and self-determination.
Technodigenous facilitates an ongoing discussion, frank and constructive, between practitioners, technologist and thinkers about the differences in perspectives of technological development, the ethical challenges of interaction, and possible sets of guiding principles for the co-design, adaptation, and deployment of technological solutions in Indigenous territories. Technodigenous is designed around Indigenous Peoples’ experiences and views of certain existing technological solutions, as a way of grounding the conversation in concrete Indigenous Peoples’ perspectives. Additionally, Technodigenous will nurture a growing number of thematic conversations and workshops, with brainstorming sessions specifically aimed at useful practical outcomes.
TED Talks
Indigenous guardians address climate solutions on a global stage.
During Climate Week NYC in 2022, Indigenous leaders took the stage during the TED Salon: THRIVE event on September 22, hosting a first-ever partnership between TED and Nia Tero to highlight Indigenous guardianship globally. At the event, Indigenous leaders from different parts of the world shared their stories, experiences, and ancestral wisdom about how humanity can take care of the planet now and for generations to come.
These TED Talks are a powerful platform to amplify the leadership of Indigenous Peoples as we collectively face the climate crisis, and give us all an opportunity to uplift Indigenous guardianship of Earth and all beings.
Learn more about each of the speakers, and watch their TED Talks.
Speakers at TED Salon: Thrive - September 22, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)
Thriving Peoples. Thriving Places.
In partnership with Amplifier design lab, Nia Tero launched the Thriving Peoples. Thriving Places. campaign on International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples 2021 as a timely reflection and embodiment of the focus of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), when leadership from across the globe will meet, with the purpose of collectively tackling climate change.
The Indigenous women activists, artists, and scholars at the heart of this campaign exemplify the ideals of guardianship, kinship, reciprocity, and wisdom. Their voices, work, and leadership benefit not only their own peoples and communities, but all of us who share this planet — which is why now, more than ever, we must celebrate them, listen to them, and most importantly, follow their lead.
