This sacred bean saved an indigenous clan from climate calamity

Women “warriors” of the indigenous Guajajara people in Brazil use drones to patrol their territory of the Amazon rainforest in an effort to prevent deforestation. Because of their work, they have been able to cut deforestation down to just 63 hectares in 2018 compared with 2,000 hectares in 2016. While the work can be dangerous and difficult at times, the women are committed to protecting the forests as a way to combat climate change. “If we don’t act, there would be no forest standing,” says one of the women warriors.

The rapid development of emerging economies across Asia and Africa is lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty - but there is much debate as to how to best structure this growth. If these economies evolve in the same way as in the West - with unchecked, excessive resource consumption and heavy pollution - the planet may be on the fast track to disaster. Earthrise explores how these nations can grow sustainably using improved, eco-conscious technologies like renewable energy and eco-friendly farming practices.

The effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and hotter global temperatures, are already having drastic impact on many communities, especially the rural, agricultural regions of countries such as Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Mozambique. Earthrise explores how people in these communities are learning new skills, implementing new techniques, and are striving in every way possible to adapt to these environmental changes while creating hope for sustainable growth in the future.

The Swinomish tribe in Washington state is combining traditional knowledge and science to combat the effects of climate change and improve the health of its land, water, and people. In recent years, their salmon harvest has diminished due to warming waters, but they’ve instituted salmon recovery efforts by restoring tidelands and channels and planting trees along stream beds to cool the waters. Their focus on ecosystem and community health could be a model for other Indigenous tribes looking to create their own climate plans.

By returning to indigenous varieties of crops, farmers can increase ecological diversity and reliance to climate change. In India, hundreds of farmers in the state of Odisha have been returning to indigenous crops, like millet, vegetables, and tubers. In contrast to the high yield varieties of seeds provided by the government, heritage crops prove more resilient to changes in climate, water shortages, and local pests. Using heritage crops also reduces the need for pesticides, helping to restore ecological balance in the region.

One tactic for combatting climate change has to do with soil health. Soil can withdraw and store carbon from the atmosphere—at a higher rate when covered by manure—and also supports long-term soil sustainability and saves farmers money. Because agriculture already consumes much of the world's surface, proponents of carbon farming envision a world where large swathes of land act as a carbon sink. Potential drawbacks and things left to explore include how to produce compost without creating more energy than it saves and how to use cows effectively when they also contribute much of the carbon in the atmosphere.

Farmer associations and Indigenous and local communities across Guatemala are working together to recover ancestral agricultural practices and educate farmers in agroecology. The collective, called the Utz Che’ Community Forestry Association, is building agroecology schools that are free to attend and facilitate co-learning in which students learn from each other. Their work protects native forests and local livelihoods from the damage caused by intensive monoculture.

Humus farming is a technique that doesn’t harm the soil or organisms living in it but instead nourishes it, thus making it more sustainable for long-term use. Humus farming and other climate change mitigation tactics to revive soil and make it healthy and usable are spreading across Europe.

After there was a fungal disease outbreak in the 1990s that affected cacao crops in Brazil, a group of 150 community members got together to collectively manage a farm to grow back cacao trees using agroforestry techniques. Because of their efforts, they sell their cacao to major chocolate brands and have seen their monthly income more than double.

Stonyfield, an organic dairy company, is working with six of its suppliers to pilot how farms can measure the amount of carbon it’s trapping in soil through regenerative farming practices as a way for the company to achieve its goals to cut carbon emissions. The OpenTEAM initiative is working to demonstrate how a dairy farm could improve its soil health to reach carbon net zero and, eventually, have food companies pay its farmers to adopt the new practices.