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  1. Ñu’u Ndito

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    Ñu’u Ndito is a collective of 25 small-scale farmers in Mexico practising the traditional milpa farming system, with a focus on the cultivation and conservation of native, coloured cotton.

    Seeing the damage caused by reliance on agro-chemicals and burning fields, the founders of Ñu’u Ndito started searching for alternatives. Working together this
    collective has:

    • Trained in ecological agriculture.
    • Defined its own ecological standards.
    • Produced a manual presenting ecological methods for production of native corn and cotton within the milpa system.
    • Developed a participatory certification system for ecological agriculture production, which certifies their work on a whole-farm basis.
    • Taken all necessary steps toward forming an independent cooperative.
    • Participated in the co-development of a system to locally produce GMO-free native cotton seeds in five natural colours.

    The group seeks to diminish the occurrence of GMO contamination of cotton in Oaxaca. It passionately wants to conserve both the local wild populations and cultivated varieties because they provide valuable fibre and form an important part of the cultural identity in the area. It collaborates with Khadi Oaxaca, an artisan collective which buys the majority of the cotton for use in producing artisanal textiles.

    Ñu’u Ndito has just harvested the first generation of GMO-free cotton seeds from its greenhouse, which is the result of a unique collaboration with the researchers and students at the Autonomous University of Mexico. Now, Ñu’u Ndito can start planning for the expansion of the conservation program via the installation of living seed banks in multiple communities.

  2. Colectivo Suumil Móokt’áan

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    Colectivo Suumil Móokt’áan is a Mayan family collective located in Sinanché, Yucatán, Mexico. The collective lives in a coastal area that has been devastated by henequen (agave) monocultures and has experienced a massive abandonment of the countryside by people moving elsewhere.

    Founded in 2020, its work seeks to create conditions that allow young people to stay in the community and build meaningful livelihoods aligned with Mayan culture. The organisation began the construction of its Mayan solar project in the midst of the Covid pandemic, a project which offers a space for intergenerational learning and reclaiming ways of living as Mayan people.

    Since then, Colectivo Suumil Móokt’áan have created different spaces and initiatives that offer learning opportunities, including:

    • A seed house, which stores 100 varieties of native seeds, a nursery and a vegetable garden.
    • Two ecological dry toilets and a 20,000 litre rainwater harvesting system made of ferrocement that feeds the vegetables and plants.
    • A collective kitchen where knowledge and flavours are exchanged.
    • A multi-purpose palapa where different meetings, gatherings and workshops are held.
    • One hectare of land is being used to promote a syntropic agroforestry system, with around 200 different plants.

    These spaces highlight how the ways participants’ grandmothers and grandfathers used to live are still valid, enabling intergenerational learning of practical and rooted knowledge of daily life around the care of the territory, health and food sovereignty.

  3. Meli Bees Network

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    The Meli Bees Network is an Indigenous-led and founded organisation, born out of a critical need to combat the devastating effects of deforestation and environmental degradation in the Amazon.

    Meli is based in Germany, founded by an Omágua from Brazili who resides in the European country. Since its founding with Amazonian communities four years ago, the Network has expanded its operations across Brazil and into communities in Spanish-speaking Latin America, with its most engaged communities in Brazil, Peru, and Mexico. Meli centres on empowering Indigenous Peoples and local communities to reclaim their autonomy, strengthen stewardship over their territories, and amplify their voices on a global stage, all within the framework of climate justice and resilience. Meli believes that those most connected to the land hold the solutions to the environmental crises we face.

    Its impact now reaches close to 100 Indigenous and local communities. It connects community leaders with vital resources – whether it’s funding or capacity-building opportunities – equipping them to spearhead projects that not only protect their territories but also enhance sustainable land management and improve lives. Through these efforts, it has built a thriving network that transforms local knowledge and action into global impact.

    In each community, the network finds strength in the deeply rooted connection to the land. Meli show the world that living in harmony with nature is not just possible, it is essential. It believes that every tree, every plant, is a reflection of who we are.

  4. Komunidad Kolinda

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    Founded in 2018, Komunidad Kolinda is an intentional eco-community. It has 11 international permanent inhabitants aiming to live autonomously and harmoniously on 6.5 hectares of forested shared land in the temperate high-altitude Sierra Sur mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico.

    The community practises regenerative agriculture and reforestation techniques, bioconstruction, traditional medicine, art, education and spirituality in close alignment with the local Zapotec indigenous population.

    The project aspires to the highest possible level of self-reliance in terms of food, water, health, energy and building materials. In order to protect the sense of community, Kolinda follows a simple internal rule – no one is entitled to buy or sell houses without the approval of all and new members enter the community through consensus of the current members. The land is communally managed.

    The community started with a land of mostly mixed forest. Its focus has been on building infrastructure, such as a road, water system, communal house and three private houses in order to host permanent and temporary members, visitors, volunteers and events.

    It has built hundreds of metres of terraces to grow a wide variety of vegetables, and has dozens of fruit trees in the ground, as part of a food forest design. Everything has been achieved without external funding.

    The community will in time turn its focus outwards to projects that will benefit the surrounding communities, such as the House of Healing and a medicinal garden and the Bosque de Mil Anos reforestation projects.

  5. teKio Network Weaver

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    The teKio project is based in southern Mexico, in the Cuxtitali district, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, and across broader Chiapas. It emerged in 2022, after the community expressed feelings of isolation, being unable to make urgent or desirable projects happen.

    teKio is committed to setting up and nurturing “everyday-life purpose networks”. This includes local networks of people and organisations wanting to work collectively to achieve a rapid, tangible and sustainable impact in their neighbourhoods. This fosters autonomy and improves living conditions for the most vulnerable population in the communities and working-class districts.

    The social difficulties characteristic of Chiapas are present within the Cuxtitali district. It is marred by historical structural inequalities: low salaries, low schooling, insecurity, exploitation of its people and resources, institutional abandonment and the presence of narco groups.

    The Cuxtitali Ecological Park is a community green space currently in a state of abandonment. It is exposed to drug and alcohol consumption and is at risk of being invaded by criminal groups that have subjugated the city. teKio wants to defend and regenerate the park with structures and activities for sport, agroecology, education and recreation.

    In the next five years, teKio sees the park as a place transformed in which:

    • Infrastructures that promote collective participation are implemented.
    • The local economy thrives, with small markets where families can sell agroecological and artisanal products.
    • Activities are offered by the community itself, such as: agroecology workshops, courses of sports, theatre and dance, film screenings, and games for children.

  6. Radio Savia

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    Radio Savia is a narrative bimonthly podcast that features diverse (indigenous, black, farmers) Latin American women activists and healers. They believe in the transformative power of storytelling from a feminist, decolonial, regenerative and antiracist perspective.

    Providing a bridge that communicates diverse struggles and territories, they seek to create solidarity and resonance between social movements going through similar situations and to amplify these powerful voices among urban contexts.

    In every episode the listener dives into an immersive sound experience where the guests share their personal journeys about healing and their relationship with themselves, their communities and the planet. Each episode explore the local meaning of ‘cuerpo-territorio’ (body-territory), a concept crafted by indigenous communities all over Latin America to express the deep bond between humans and the planet.

    Those in peasant communities or indigenous territories listen to the podcast through Whatsapp or community radios (where the content has become popular), hearing testimonies similar to their own – voices that are not normally heard in mainstream media.

  7. Biocenosis

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    Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl, Tepoztlán, Mexico, is an indigenous town with an important tradition of corn planting and milpa culture.

    Conventional agricultural models and the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides have led to soil erosion and decreased soil fertility. The rainfall regime is also changing.

    Based on the economic and social consequences of the covid 19 pandemic, Biocenosis decided to propose a model of local resilience in the face of global crises through the collective work of regenerative agriculture.

    Using successional agroforestry systems, five project members and three farmers from Tepoztlán began planting rainfed crops in order to create a sustainable productive model adapted to the local context.

    With this initiative, we hope to demonstrate the social, ecological and economic viability of this type of project, train at least 100 people annually and help transform the reality of the farmers involved in the Cuauhnáhuac micro-region and bioregion.

  8. INSO

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    INSO was founded in 1991 to support communities with regenerative social and ecological initiatives in the diverse state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

    Its flagship ‘Slow Water’ project aims to address the Central Valley’s watershed crisis, where the speed with which water flows impacts on both its communities and its ecosystems.

    INSO remains deeply engrained in grass-roots culture, while its Oaxacan Water Forum has brought community stakeholders together with NGOs, the private sector, and governmental and academic institutions. It takes an integrated approach by combining traditional wisdom and community organisation with modern knowledge and techniques.

    INSO has also established two vibrant Regeneration and Permaculture Demonstration Sites, providing workshops, training and examples of regenerative land use. This includes soil conservation, re-vegetation, organic farming, ecological forestry, irrigation and rain harvesting.

    Through its work, INSO reinforces a sense of the fragility and sacredness of nature, viewing it as inseparable from society.

  9. The Lucy Foundation

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    The Lucy Foundation uses coffee to create awareness around inclusion, accessibility and diversity.

    In 2016, it established Pluma Coffee Project, in an isolated coffee-farming village in Mexico with the aim of transforming the global coffee industry. It sought to develop a regenerative value chain of coffee (good for the environment, the local community and economy, and also inclusive of people with disabilities).

    It works with indigenous coffee-farming families, all affected by disability, to help increase the quality and quantity of their coffee. It also helps disabled family members to become trained and employed within the local coffee industry. 

    This work is driven by a belief that equitable opportunities for people with disabilities and other diverse life experiences, together with meaningful interactions between community members (regardless of identity), are hugely beneficial to community health, wellbeing and resilience.

    Alongside organic agricultural workshops, The Lucy Foundation has developed a local barista training program (delivered in sign language); has launched the first commercial batch of Pluma coffee and cascara (coffee tea) in New Zealand; and has created alliances with an exporter/importer, a roaster, a coffee training provider and cafes who strive to employ regenerative practices and who actively train and employ disabled people.

  10. Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociadad de Oaxaca: INSO

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    Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociadad de Oaxaca (Institute for Nature and Society of Oaxaca) was founded in 1991 to support Oaxacan communities with their social and ecological initiatives in Mexico.

    It is based on a principle of viewing nature and society as inseparable and works in a collaborative way which aims to be inclusive of all.

    For the last decade INSO has been developing its Slow Water initiative which works to regenerate the natural and social fabric of the Central Valley´s Watershed. This involves a number of projects and activities including demonstrative permaculture programs, creek restoration, public education and the creation of Water Forum which allows for better collaboration between the communities, NGOs, research institutions, government and private sector.

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