Arcadia

Arcadia is a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. It supports charities and scholarly institutions that preserve cultural heritage and the environment. Arcadia also supports projects that promote open access and all of its awards are granted on the condition that any materials produced are made available for free online. Since 2002, Arcadia has awarded more than $777 million to projects around the world.

Arcadia supports the Environmental Governance Programme in FPP with a core grant to advance and promote the roles and capacities of indigenous peoples and communities in conserving and sustainably using their lands and resources. The framework for this work is provided below, while programme activities are found throughout the Environmental Governance Programme themes. 

Programme Background

Many indigenous peoples face threats from industrial expansion and population movements that threaten their very existence and threaten the ecological integrity of their territories. Globally we all face the urgency of the twin biodiversity and climate change crises.

Documenting, supporting and evidencing the positive contributions of indigenous and forest peoples in addressing these crises from the ground up provides a platform to promote alternatives at the global level. This can influence national and global policy and financing choices, including through the CBD and UNFCCC processes, and by national government. It can also directly influence conservation practice. Genuine policy alternatives and practical solutions that espouse a mosaic view of the world with locally grounded, sustainable systems are sorely needed, and partnership with indigenous and forest peoples can provide these alternatives.

At community level, many communities are responding to threats against their ways of life by developing their own initiatives that incorporate the transmission and use of traditional knowledge, and engage youth and children, on their own terms. But such initiatives are often small-scale and remain largely invisible to donors, policy makers, conservation professionals and the public and lack sustained support. At the community level resilience is also being eroded by the scale and pace of change and localized support and networking between indigenous and forest peoples is needed to retain and reinforce resilience and support alternative visions.

As inhabitants of our bounded planet, we need to ensure the relationship between humans and nature is brought into better balance. Our long partnerships with indigenous and forest dependent peoples across the globe have taught us that some of the solutions lie within their systems of knowledge and management and working with them to develop and share these can have global impact.ounded planet, we need to ensure the relationship between humans and nature is brought into better balance. Our long partnerships with indigenous and forest dependent peoples across the globe have taught us that some of the solutions lie within their systems of knowledge and management and working with them to develop and share these can have global impact. With this support from Arcadia, the Environmental Governance Programme can provide targeted additional support across the country programmes of work.