Greetings fellow Bioneers!
On Sunday, the 29th annual Bioneers Conference came to a close. We left full of hope for our future and feeling more committed than ever to our work.
We spent three inspiring days hearing from the youth leaders, activists, journalists, entrepreneurs, and more, who are working hard to leave a positive mark on their peers, communities, and the planet. It’s times like these when it feels like so many of our fundamental shared beliefs about the importance of stewarding our planet are being reversed or undermined by our government, that we need to see the important work Bioneers around the world are doing.
In this week’s email, we highlight just a sample of what we saw and experienced at Bioneers 2018. Over the next few weeks, we can't wait to share with you the talks and ideas that inspired us at Bioneers 2018, including full keynote videos, transcripts, photos and more. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, so you don’t miss a thing.
Now is the time to mobilize to work toward a future that is socially just and environmentally responsible—together.
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Wise Words From Bioneers 2018
“If you want to know the health of a place, look at the health of its Indigenous people.” —Lyla June, poet, musician, anthropologist, and community organizer of Diné, Cheyenne and European lineages
"The best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The second best time is today." —Alex Eaton, co-founder of Sistema.bio, a social business addressing climate change, food security, and poverty through technology
"Our way of life, our way of seeing and thinking, has protected the rainforest into the 21st century. We mustn’t trade in thousands of years of knowledge in order to become cattle ranchers. The Amazon depends on it." —Alicia Salazar, Ceibo Alliance General Coordinator, who is currently working to bring attention to a petition to protect Waorani land from oil drilling
“The only thing stronger than a determined woman is a group of women with each other’s backs.” —Nina Simons, co-founder and Chief Relationship Strategist of Bioneers and co-founder of Women Bridging Worlds and Connecting Women Leading Change
“Help people build new things, not just resist. If we want to keep the masses engaged and inspired, we need to build small replicable models. Seeing something work differently, even at the smallest level, gives people hope.” —Cat Brooks, “artivist,” community leader, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, and Executive Director of the Justice Teams Network
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| Transitioning from Toxic Manhood |
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| Youth Creating a Less Violent World |
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| Envisioning a Future In Which We All Thrive |
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Help Bioneers Continue This Important Work
We are thrilled to share that on Sunday, Azita Ardakani and Honeycomb Portfolio announced they would be matching donations to Bioneers, dollar for dollar, up to $50,000! Honeycomb Portfolio is a female-founded fund led by Bioneer Azita Ardakani, which invests in early-stage, nature-inspired, for-profit social enterprises. Support Bioneers now with Venmo or Paypal by giving to donate@bioneers.org or click the button below. |
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What Bioneers Co-Founders & Executive Director Had to Say at Bioneers 2018
At this year's conference, attendees had the opportunity to hear directly from conference co-founders Nina Simons and Kenny Ausubel, as well as Bioneers’ executive director Joshua Fouts, about the troubling times we’re currently living in and the way forward. Read transcripts from each of their keynote addresses here:
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Take Action: A Message From Julia Butterfly Hill on Encouraging Our Youth
Eighteen years ago, the courageous activist Julia Butterfly Hill, who had spent more than two years living 180 feet high in a 1,500-year-old redwood tree to protest the clear cutting of old growth forests, spoke at Bioneers. She both inspired and challenged us to include more youth at the Bioneers Conference. This year we will provide over 400 scholarships to young people. You can help by supporting our Youth Leadership Scholarship (YLS) Campaign. Watch a message from Julia above, and find out more about how you can contribute to the YLS Campaign here. |
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News From the Amazon: Progress for Indigenous & Environmental Rights in Ecuador
Bioneers awardees from Ceibo Alliance brought a powerful message of hope from the Amazon this past weekend. From their keynote speech on Saturday to their panels and at the Awards Dinner, they told stories of indigenous resistance on the frontlines of extractive industries’ assault on the rainforest, shared about their organizing model that puts youth, women’s leadership and ancestral culture at the center of building solutions to rainforest destruction, and helped us understand that indigenous peoples must be empowered as leaders in the global fight against climate change. Perhaps the most powerful lesson from their struggle can be summed up in one line from Nemote Nenquimo, “We are all connected.”
Upon returning back to the Amazon they were greeted with incredible news: after two years of on-the-ground organizing, evidence gathering, and legal accompaniment, a provincial court in Ecuador ruled in favor of Ceibo partners in the Kofán community of Sinangoe, nullifying 52 gold mining concessions granted without the Kofan’s permission and protecting 79,000 acres in a mega-biodiverse headwaters region of their ancestral territory. Check out a video from Amazon Frontlines and Ceibo Alliance about the victory here. Then sign the pledge to Stand With Sinangoe to show your solidarity with the indigenous-led movement that is standing up for the Amazon rainforest and our climate future. |
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