Saving the Earth through Native Stewardship
The Tree of Life Guardianship concentrates its efforts in rich, high-biodiversity areas of the earth. These high-biodiversity areas are home to the majority of the last, intact, ancient indigenous societies. So long as these cultures remain undisturbed by outside perturbation, the ecosystems that they steward remain well-springs of ecological wealth—thriving with biodiversity, these lands harbor unique species which are found nowhere else on earth.
The Earth’s 34 richest regions of bio-diversity are also the most threatened places on earth. Termed ‘biological hotspots’, and representing but 2.3* percent of the Earth’s land surface, they support almost half (42 percent) of the world’s terrestrial vertebrate species. Today, over 70 percent of the forested land covered by these hotspots has vanished. Further encroachment places extreme stress on the areas that remain.
An unmistakable correlation exists between indigenous habitat and the last vestigial zones of bio-diversity remaining on our planet. 80% of the ecological ‘hot spots’ on earth are home to the majority of the earth’s indigenous peoples (3,000 groups containing over 300 million individuals estimated). The maps that demarcate indigenous territories correspond to mappings of the last healthy ecosystems on earth. The areas of the two maps closely coincide when superimposed. Indigenous peoples are endangered peoples; they have aptly been called ‘vanishing peoples’.
Indigenous peoples are eco-system people. Their prosperity depends on the health of the land. The survival of indigenous people depends on their ability to enhance the productivity of nature and the biological systems that feed and clothe them. Nature is Mother; when she thrives there is abundance and joyfulness and life. The indigenous proclivity to steward the land is driven by a will for perpetuity; it is desire to sustain life through ongoing cycles of a multi-generational relationship with the Earth Mother. Due to this spiritually driven intentionality to serve Life, native people have become ecologically responsible people.
9 of the 12 countries possessing the majority of cultural diversity are in the roster of biological “megadiversity” countries; and the 9 nations with the greatest species richness are found in countries with the highest number of endemic tribal languages
The land conservation efforts of the TLG are concentrated within developing nations of the world. It is here that indigenous cultures survive through direct participation with nature; it is here that nature flourishes in response to human nurturance. within countries scattered throughout Latin America, Siberia, Australia, Malaysia, Asia, and Africa, are the last examples of existence lived in integral holism. Here, livelihood, spirituality, and nature intermingle in a social realm of perceptible mysticism. The Indigenous method of participation with Life is designed to endure forever: Like a house built on rock rather than sand, the indigenous world is constructed on a sustainable foundation. The native paradigm of existence is able, in contrast to other models of human social behavior, to persist into perpetuity. The indigenous cosmologies live through the spirit of the land, where the Creator of Origins communes with those who search Its illimitable Being, and the Ancient Memory remains unbroken since time immemorial. The ‘right way to live’ is remembered seasonally, cyclically, annually; it is practiced personally and communally.
The Tree of Life Guardianship targets the rare valuable ecosystems which support endangered human societies; these ‘living treasures of the earth’ are places where humans and nature merge in a cooperative symbiosis reflective of the sacred circle of life. Every conservation dollar spent allows indigenous people to manage their homelands in a sustainable fashion which guarantees the survival of countless endangered species. By empowering native communities to act as guardians of their own original territories, we are able to conserve entire ecosystems and the species that inhabit them. We work with other nonprofit organizations and grassroots tribal authorities to establish cooperative networks of protected indigenous lands integrated by bio-conservation corridors or buffering zones. These buffer zones provide indigenous people with multiple sustainable use areas that allow for supplemental economic development. Degraded territories can be utilized for agricultural production to increase soil biomass, while encouraging biological succession. In this way the TLG assists indigenous communities in the productive restoration of damaged and denuded lands. bio-conservation corridors can be used to expand ecotones in prior indigenous territories, and in some cases can be reclaimed by adjacent ecosystems and returned to High biodiversity status; thus expanding the ecotone. The TLG focuses on high priority ecosystems inhabited by indigenous populations which are classified as Biodiversity Hotspots and High-Biodiversity Wilderness Areas.
* The number has been variously counted at 1.44 or 2.3 percent depending on how we stringent a criterion we use to classify biological hotspots. We use the 2.3 count which gives us more breadth of movement in selecting various tribal groups for land preservation programs.
