On The Frontlines — Standing with Indigenous Guardians of the Earth
Across the world’s remaining forests — from the Amazon to Indonesia, Madagascar, Siberia, and Scandinavia — Indigenous peoples have long been on the frontlines of the climate crisis. They feel the changes first: shifting seasons, failing rains, collapsing biodiversity, and the loss of the natural rhythms that sustain life. As COP30 unfolds in the Amazon, their warning is clear: the ecosystems that nourish humanity are nearing irreversible breaking points, and the communities protecting them are being overwhelmed.
Our film On the Frontlines amplifies the voices of these ancestral guardians whose stewardship has preserved the forests the world depends on. Their knowledge and resilience are critical to restoring ecological balance, yet they face constant threats from deforestation, extraction, and climate disruption. Standing with Indigenous peoples means standing for the survival of our forests — and our future.The Amazon is breathing through a crisis. As COP30 unfolds in the heart of the rainforest, we’re reminded that trees are doing everything they can to keep our air, land, and water clean — even as human-driven deforestation accelerates across the world. Entire ecosystems and indigenous communities are being pushed to the edge as forests are cleared for logging, agriculture, and mining. When trees fall, we lose far more than shade or beauty — we lose biodiversity, cultural heritage, climate stability, and the very lungs that help our planet breathe.
Video: Breathing Space: A Baby Bird Takes Flight (2016) — Oprah Winfrey Network / Harpo Productions, Inc. Music: Cloudbusting (1984) — Written and performed by Kate Bush; EMI – Electric & Musical Industries, LTD.; Universal Music Group Images: NASA — James Webb Telescope
UN SDG Connection
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
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Add your voice to Amazon Watch. For 25 years, this international group has been saving the Amazon rainforest by increasing awareness and lobbying governments.
The IEN-WMAN Grassroots Communities Mining Mini-Grant program offers grant assistance to non-profit, grassroots communities that are opposing mining in the US and/or Canada.
Learn how the US Environmental Protection Agency is working with federally recognized tribes to develop their own environmental programs.
Attend an event by EFAM and learn how to use indigenous knowledge of plants to heal the world and yourself.
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Land defender Tara Houska reflects on her experiences fighting Line 3 on the frontlines—and why reconnecting with our future will require reconciling with our past.
Pinar Sinopoulos-Lloyd of the Quechua People, is the founder of Queer Nature, an organization dedicated to reconnecting queer people to the natural world to create a sense of belonging.
Winona LaDuke of the Ojibwe Nation, is the executive director of Honor the Earth, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and resources to help sustainable Native communities.
Jasilyn Charger, of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, co-created The One Mind Youth Movement, which engages youth on the reservation in various social and environmental activism.
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, of the Mashika People, first at age nine, organized a youth Earth Guardians group to stop the use of pesticides in Boulder, Colorado, where he lived.
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The Independent reports Indigenous leadership key to curbing deforestation and deforestation rates are lower in land controlled by indigenous peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Equator Awards honors the world’s indigenous peoples’ efforts, innovation and vision to save their ancestral habitats.
See superstar and environmental activist Barbra Streisand’s powerful message to protect indigenous guardians and the Amazon rainforest.
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Landmark pact to protect Amazon rainforest shows little progress, according to International news agency Aljazeera reports.
Amazon Watch covers recent activism from indigenous groups in Brazil: “The Struggle of Indigenous Peoples Is a Struggle for the Future of Humanity.”
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Gilio-Whitaker opens “As Long As Grass Grows” with a story of the water protectors at Standing Rock, putting Indigenous people at the center of ongoing environmental justice discussion.
Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a botanist by profession, marries science and Indigenous knowledge in “Braiding Sweetgrass.”
As one of the most well-known Palestinian authors, Ghassan Kanafani’s writing often invokes land and nature to tell the story of Palestinian exile in “Land of the Sad Oranges.”
As an Anishinaabe journalist, Waubgeshig Rice grounds the fictitious community of “Moon of the Crusted Snow” in the true-to-life dynamics and struggles of Canada’s First Nations peoples.
Amazon ecologist and conservation expert, Mark J. Plotkin, offers an engaging overview of this irreplaceable ecosystem in “The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know.”
“Trees in Trouble” by Daniel Mathews explores the devastating and compounding effects of climate change in the Western and Rocky Mountain states, told through in–depth reportage.
“Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest” by Suzanne Simard, invites people to reconsider their connection and relationship to trees.
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The Sacred Land Film Project tells inspiring stories of indigenous peoples’ resistance to the destruction of their sacred sites and cultures.
In Mat Hames’ 2017 documentary What Was Ours, an Eastern Shoshone Elder and two Northern Arapaho youth embark on a quest to preserve the culture of their ancestors.
Water Warriors begins as a story we’ve seen endless times, where extractive industries like fossil fuels and mining arrive seeking profit, disregarding the needs of Indigenous lands.
Pro snowboarders and surfers embark on a journey across British Columbia and beyond in The Radicals, learning about issues facing Indigenous communities and the environment.
Released in 2017, Lake of Betrayal documents the construction of the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania and the dramatic fight against it by the Seneca Nation.
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Tashka and Laura Yawanawá, Yawanawá tribe leaders discuss how they protect 500,000 acres of Amazon rainforest in The Amazon Belongs to Humanity – Let’s Protect It.
Activist Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim presents how Indigeonous Knowledge meets Science to Take on Climate Change and offers lessons on how to create more resilient communities.
Tara Houska is a land defender who spent six months living and working at Standing Rock to fight the Dakota Access Pipeline — then spoke about the fight on the TED stage.
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In The Muscogee Pod: Episode 7, Dallas Goldtooth talks with us about his breakout performance in Hulu’s Reservation Dogs, his environmental advocacy work and general Indian-ness.
In Indigenous Climate Knowledges and Data Sovereignty, the “Warm Regards” Podcast explores tribal communities using traditional ecological knowledge to prepare for climate change.
Amazon Frontlines discusses defending indigenous rights to land, life and cultural survival in the Amazon rainforest.
In an episode of Brown Girl Green, Kristy Drutmann explores how conservation efforts done poorly can harm indigenous communities.
Understand the struggles of the Amazon’s indigenous peoples in a two-part series interviewing Mitch Anderson, the founder of Amazon Frontlines, produced by the Green Dreamer podcast.
From the Amazon to Australia to California, Good Fire Podcast shares stories of indigenous fire stewardship, cultural empowerment and environmental integrity.
