Rekindling our relationship with Mother Earth

Through our commitment to Earth Jurisprudence and the revalorising of indigenous cosmologies, we are supporting the transformation from a human-centred to an Earth-centred way of being in the world.

Through a unique training programme facilitated by Gaia and our African allies, a growing collective of African civil society leaders is now practicing Earth Jurisprudence principles in their restorative land and community-based work across Eastern, Western and Southern Africa. Together with the Gaia team, these practitioners are accompanying indigenous communities from Benin to Zimbabwe on a path towards decolonisation by reviving Earth-centred knowledge, practices and customary laws and governance systems.

Meet the African Earth Jurisprudence Collective

Sowing Seed Sovereignty

We are helping transform our food system at its very heart – the seed. Through small-scale, locally adapted and agro-ecological seed systems, climate change resilience is sown as nutritious food is grown.

Transforming the way seed is produced, saved, valued and shared is essential to ecological restoration, climate change resilience and a fair food and farming system. We believe that a food revolution starts with seed. In both Africa and the UK & Ireland Gaia is working with vibrant movements to help re-weave the conditions for seed and food sovereignty to thrive, nourishing both people and planet.

“Gaia’s support through the Seed Sovereignty Programme has made a massive difference in helping to widen access to seeds and to training for people to learn to grow and share seed.”

 Kate McEvoy, Real Seeds, United Kingdom

Discover the Seed Sovereignty Programme

Going Beyond Extractivism

Standing in solidarity with the frontline communities protecting Mother Earth from destruction and nurturing regenerative alternatives.

We believe that the extractive mindset of industrial societies must be transformed and that a new ethic of care must govern our relationship to the lands and waters that sustain us.

In 2014, frontline communities around the planet and civil society organisations including Gaia came together to found a new international network- Yes to Life, No to Mining. The Network began life as a call to action; an invitation to all those facing the destruction of mining to unite in solidarity and in defence of life-giving lands and waters. Since then, it has grown to include more than 100 communities and organisations from every inhabited continent on Earth. Together, we are demonstrating that a world beyond extractivism, with power held by citizens and communities, is not only possible, but necessary for our collective wellbeing.

Yes to Life, No to Mining

Protecting Sacred Lands and Waters

We accompany the custodians of sacred lands and waters to protect the beating hearts of healthy, biodiverse ecosystems all around our living planet.

We believe that sacred lands and waters hold the key to ecosystem connectivity, climate change resilience, flourishing biodiversity and reimagining conservation. Listening to and respecting the wisdom of Indigenous custodians is crucial if we are to overcome the failures of modern society’s environmental governance. From the Amazon to Africa, we have been tireless in supporting custodian communities to defend and restore their sacred forests, wetlands, hills and other places of ecological and cosmological potency.