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About Us

Land is Life is a global coalition of Indigenous Peoples that works to advance the self-determination and collective rights of Indigenous Peoples in the world’s seven socio-cultural regions.

Mission

The mission of Land is Life is to advance a process of dialogue and strategic action to achieve legal recognition of, and respect for – at the local, national and international levels – Indigenous Peoples’ rights to self-determination and collective ownership of their territories, lands, resources and knowledge.

Vision

We live for the day when Indigenous Peoples around the world are able to practice self-determination; when our human, economic, social, cultural, political, and territorial rights are recognized and respected; when we are free to speak our languages, maintain our sacred traditions and continue the work of caring for our ancestral homelands.  We work towards the day when Indigenous Peoples are recognized as valued members of the international community, and we are allowed to assume our rightful roles as partners in the search for a more equitable, just, and suitable world.

From the Arctic to the Amazon, from Siberia to South Africa, from West Papua to Rwanda, we envision genuinely democratic and autonomous Indigenous Peoples’ territories, where we can live according to our own economic, social and political institutions, maintain and develop our cultures, and pursue our own models of development. This, we believe, is necessary not only for our survival and continuity as distinct cultures, but also to maintain the ecological, hydrological and climatic stability of the entire planet.

Our History

In May of 1992, nearly 1,000 Indigenous Peoples’ leaders from around the world came together in a forested valley outside of Rio de Janeiro for the World Conference of Indigenous Peoples on Territories, Environment and Development. They had gathered there to contemplate the state of the world, to share their ceremonies and stories, and to see if they could encourage the leaders of the world’s governments, who were meeting in Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Earth Summit, to take action to address the social and environmental crises facing humanity.

Conference participants drafted and unanimously adopted two landmark documents in the struggle for Indigenous Peoples’ rights, the Kari-Oca Declaration and the Indigenous Peoples Earth Charter. These documents set out Indigenous Peoples’ demands and recommendations for sustainable development  and environmental protection based on the principles of self-determination and respect for Indigenous Peoples’ fundamental rights to their lands, territories, resources and cultural heritage. Land is Life was founded as a way of continuing the important work of this historic gathering, and promoting the ideals expressed in these two documents.

 

Since its founding, Land is Life has played an important role in the international struggle for Indigenous Peoples’ rights, working with Indigenous Peoples’ communities and organizations from around the world – from the heart of the Amazon, to the plains and forests of Africa, to the islands of the Pacific, and Arctic tundra – to protect their territories and secure rights locally, nationally and internationally.