For decades, conservation generally has been framed around the same idea: that Nature can only be protected if it is untouched, wild, and free of human presence. In this narrative, humans are cast as nature’s primary enemy, something to be removed from the equation in order to save ecosystems and wildlife.
But this vision ignores a fundamental truth. Across the world, some of the most biodiverse and resilient ecosystems exist not despite human presence, but because of it. For generations, Indigenous Peoples and local communities have stewarded forests, savannas, wetlands, and rivers through systems of knowledge, governance, and care that predate modern conservation by centuries (FAO, n.d. -a).
From the Amazon basin to the Andean highlands, Indigenous territorial management has preserved vast areas of forest and biodiversity. In Latin America, Indigenous-managed lands consistently show significantly lower rates of deforestation than surrounding areas, even under intense pressure from extractive industries (FAO & FILAC, 2021).
Similarly, in East Africa, the Maasai of the Mara ecosystem have long practiced forms of pastoralism that maintain grassland biodiversity and wildlife corridors, a living example that conservation and human presence are not mutually exclusive (FAO, n.d.-b; Selemani, 2020).
Yet, many conservation and climate initiatives still operate as if protecting Nature requires displacing people, particularly Indigenous Peoples, from their own territories (Sime, 2022)1 This has led to dispossession, conflict, and the criminalization of defenders, all while failing to address the root causes of ecological destruction.
As emerging leaders and defenders of the Rights of Nature, we have learned a crucial lesson: you cannot defend the rights of ecosystems without defending the rights of the peoples who protect them.
Nature is not an abstract entity separate from human life. Ecosystems are dynamic and complex living systems made up of species, habitats, and the cultural, spiritual, legal, and economic relationships people have with them. Where Indigenous land rights are recognised and protected, biodiversity thrives (Reytar et al., 2024). Where they are ignored, ecosystems are likely to collapse.
This is not coincidence. It is interconnectivity.
Rights and roots is a youth-led, emergent organization born from this understanding. We exist to build a bridge, not only in theory, but in practice, between the Rights of Nature, Indigenous rights, and human rights.
Our Rights & Roots theory of change is grounded in a rights-based approach that recognizes ecosystems as living entities, not resources to be marketed or commodified. At the same time, it affirms that the protection of Nature is inseparable from Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and territorial rights.
Indigenous territorial protection is one of the most effective climate mitigation strategies available today. Evidence shows that:
By supporting community-led, non-extractive, and regenerative ways of living, we keep carbon in the ground, prevent deforestation before it occurs, and protect ecosystems at their source. Crucially, this approach provides a practical pathway to implement the Rights of Nature into biocultural economies while sustaining livelihoods.
If we talk about climate solutions, we offer a fundamentally different approach.
Mainstream “nature-based solutions” often focus on technical efficiency: how many tonnes of CO₂ can be captured, offset, or traded. In contrast, rights-based solutions place people, nature rights and justice at the centre. Success is not measured only in carbon metrics, but in whether projects respect land and nature rights, obtain free, prior and informed consent, protect defenders, and improve community wellbeing.
This difference matters.
Without strong rights safeguards, climate projects (including carbon markets) have led to land grabs, exclusion, and new forms of ecological commodification (Rainforest Foundation UK, 2025). Even community-managed carbon projects can reduce forests to their compensatory value, rather than recognising their inherent rights and existence. Meanwhile, polluting industries are allowed to continue operating under the same fossil-fuelled models, using offsets as a moral licence rather than reducing emissions at source.
Our approach rejects this logic.
A rights-based climate strategy delivers real and lasting impact because it:
As international bodies have increasingly recognised, climate action that fails to protect Indigenous and community rights is neither just nor sustainable in the long term (Boucha, 2023).
Our work in Alter do Chão takes this recognition as a starting point. The Borari-led Ecotourism and Territorial Guardianship project is not a market-based mechanism; it is a climate solution grounded in rights, territorial presence, and community governance. Ecotourism becomes a tool for sustaining guardianship and documenting environmental injustice like river degradation, land pressure, and illegal deforestation, in ways that reinforce territorial claims and long-term sovereignty.
Climate action, in this sense, is found in the way the project helps prevent emissions and ecological destruction that drive climate change.
The project is also grounded in the understanding that territory is not a resource but a living system with its own rights, integrity, and limits. Respecting the Rights of Nature, in practice, means that the river and forest are not merely treated as assets to be monetised and scaled, but it means that:
In other words, the river is not required to “produce value” to justify its protection, its integrity is the baseline.
We are guided by a simple but powerful truth:
“The climate is not protected by selling permits to pollute, but by strengthening rights, territories, and living economies.”
This is the future we are working toward, one where Nature is recognised as a rights-holder, Indigenous Peoples are respected as guardians, and climate solutions are rooted in justice, not extraction.
If you or your organisation is interested in supporting us or getting involved with any of our projects, please email us at hello@rightsroots.org. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn.
Boucha, R. (2023, December 5). New report highlights failure of states to uphold Indigenous rights in national climate policy. Indigenous Climate Action. https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com/entries/cop28-analysis-report-release
Camino, M., Aceves, P. A. V., Alvarez, A., Chianetta, P., de la Cruz, L. M., Alonzo, K., Vallejos, M., Zamora, L., Neme, A., Altrichter, M., & Cortez, S. (2023). Indigenous lands with secure land‑tenure can reduce forest‑loss in deforestation hotspots. Global Environmental Change, 83, 102678. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102678
Environmental Defense Fund. (2025, October 28). Protected areas are key in slowing deforestation; Without them Brazilian Amazon forest loss would be 35% and carbon emissions 45% higher. Environmental Defense Fund. https://www.edf.org/media/new-analysis-finds-indigenous-lands-and-protected-areas-are-key-slowing-deforestation-without?utm_source=chatgpt.com
FAO. (n.d.-a). Indigenous peoples and traditional forest-related knowledge. Forestry. FAO. https://www.fao.org/forestry/our-focus/forests-people/indigenous-people-and-traditional-forest-related-knowledge/en
FAO & FILAC. (2021). Los pueblos indígenas y tribales y la gobernanza de los bosques: Una oportunidad para la acción climática en América Latina y el Caribe. Santiago: FAO.
FAO. (n.d.-b). Case study No. 12: Wayana indigenous peoples and forest‑related knowledge (in Participatory and negotiated territorial development). FAO. https://www.fao.org/4/y4586e/y4586e13.htm
Rainforest Foundation UK. (2025, October 14). New report exposes ‘carbon land grab’ sweeping across the Congo Basin. https://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/new-report-exposes-carbon-land-grab-sweeping-across-the-congo-basin/
Reytar, K., Veit, P., & von Braun, J. (2024, November 22). Protecting biodiversity hinges on securing Indigenous and community land rights. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/indigenous-and-local-community-land-rights-protect-biodiversity
Selemani, I. S. (2020). Indigenous knowledge and rangelands’ biodiversity conservation in Tanzania: Success and failure. Biodiversity and Conservation, 29(14), 3863–3876. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531‑020‑02060‑z
Sime, M. M. (2022, October 5). Balancing environmental protection with Indigenous rights: The creation of conservation refugees. American Bar Association. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/international_law/resources/international-law-news/2022-fall/balancing-environmental-protection-indigenous-rights/
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The previous blog posts in this series looked at what it means to be ‘for nature’ and how we conceptualise society, covering social ecology and relational/holistic models of society and nature. Now, we in the final post in the series, we look at what this means for law.
Magazine articles and blogs, conference videos and podcasts, books and films: we are awash with information and ideas, making it hard for any, however good, to break through. Occasionally, one does and, happily, that appears to be the case with Giving Nature a Seat on the Board.
