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Healing people, healing nature

Local pathways to a global peace

September 17^th, 2025

In a world where rising violence, conflict, and turmoil dominate headlines, it is easy to believe that there is little we, as regular citizens, can do for peace. But lasting peace rarely begins with a ceasefire or treaties alone; it often starts far from the spotlight in villages, forests, riversides and farms where communities live and lead.

Indigenous Peoples and local communities remind us of this every day. In a climate-changing world, they protect 80 percent of biodiversity on just a quarter of the world’s land. Yet studies show that 80 percent of armed conflicts between 1950 and 2000 occurred in biodiversity hotspots, most of them on Indigenous lands. This exposes communities to disproportionate risks compared to other groups. Landlessness, displacement, organized crime and violence often come with defending their territories.

Despite this, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are leading transformative action at the grassroots for both people and planet, including climate-informed peacebuilding. In line with UNDP’s mission to deliver integrated solutions, the Equator Prize is one way we recognize and support this leadership. Since 2002, it has honoured 306 local and Indigenous initiatives from 94 countries for their nature-based solutions to sustainable development.

From mountain coffee farms in Colombia to forests in Myanmar, from pastoral lands in Ethiopia to Amazon rivers in Ecuador, peace looks different for these four Equator Prize winners, but it shares the same urgent heartbeat. This International Day of Peace, under the theme Act Now for a Peaceful World, these initiatives remind us that peace is dual. It heals both human conflict and our fractured relationship with nature.

Peace in daily rituals - Colombia

In Colombia, marked by more than six decades of armed conflict between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), peace is taking root in an unexpected place; the coffee farm.

Following the historic 2016 Peace Agreement, ex-combatants, victims, and host communities alike united to found the Federación Mesa Nacional del Café (FEMNCAFÉ). Today, its 28 coffee associations in nine regions are rewriting the story of Colombian coffee, not only as an export commodity but as a symbol of justice, memory, and healing.

With support from UNDP Colombia’s NaturalPaz project, this 2024 Equator Prize winner uses sustainable coffee production and environmental stewarship as a means to strengthen livelihoods and support the reintegration of peace agreement signatories.

“Before the signing of the agreement, the former combatants knew nothing about coffee—not even how to tell a good coffee from a bad one. Eight years later, we've been recognized for producing the best coffee in Colombia and the best coffee in the world, chosen from over 6,000 samples across 17 countries. We've also been honoured with the 2024 Equator Prize for our environmental sustainability strategy.”

-Oswaldo Mendoza, President of FEMNCAFÉ

Peace in forest governance - Myanmar

When the Karen people, one of Myanmar’s largest ethnic minorities, sought self-determination it triggered a conflict that stretched over 70 years. Villages endured decades of insecurity and displacement until a fragile ceasefire was signed in 2015.

While the ceasefire allowed Karen communities to return to their homeland in the resource-rich Salween River basin, one of the last remaining intact wild landscapes in mainland Southeast Asia, it also ushered in ‘ceasefire capitalism,’ manifested through logging concessions, agribusiness, and proposed hydropower dams.

To ensure that peace was more than an agreement, the Karen people envisioned a different path, one rooted not in extraction and exclusion, but in rights and reciprocity. In 2014, they created the 5,400 km² Salween Peace Park, bringing together protected areas, community forests, and Indigenous territories under community-led governance.

“Karen Indigenous knowledge is the heart of the Salween Peace Park. In Karen culture, humans, culture, and nature are inextricably intertwined. The prosperity of the community directly corresponds with the health of the natural environment. Karen taboos are the structure that maintains a mutually reinforcing relationship between communities and nature, ensuring a healthy environment for generations to come.”

-Paul Sein Twa, Chairperson of the Salween Peace Park General Assembly

Peace in shared survival - Ethiopia and Kenya

Like many pastoralist groups, the Borana and Gabra tribes in Ethiopia and Kenya thrive on a nomadic lifestyle, practicing transhumance, the seasonal movement of livestock between pastures.

Traditionally, land tenure among these communities has been communal, with access and use negotiated through customary agreements. But as climate change intensifies pressure on pasturelands, water sources and other natural resources, inter-tribal competition has also escalated.

The Oromia Pastoralist Association (OPA) was recognized as a winner in 2015 for promoting peace within this transnational way of life. Through initiatives such as sustainable grazing practices, cross-border community dialogue, and conflict resolution strategies, OPA strengthens solidarity in the face of climate shocks and socio-economic pressures.

The Oromia Pastoralist Association promotes peace within its transnational way of life. Photo: Oromia Pastoralist Association

Peace in defence - Ecuador

Ecuador was the first country to enshrine the 'rights of nature' in its constitution. Yet in recent years, violence linked to drug trafficking and organized crime has threatened both Indigenous Peoples and the ecosystems they protect. In the Amazon, illegal mining as an income source for these groups devastates rivers, forests, and communities, spreading pollution, disease, and conflict.

The Hakhu Amazon Foundation emerged to confront these threats. Named a 2025 Equator Prize finalist, Hakhu promotes gender equality as a pathway to sustainable development and environmental protection.

What began in 2016 as a women’s association producing crafts for sustainable income soon grew into Hakhu Design, a brand whose creations now reach the runways of New York.

Building on this momentum, and facing the growing threat of illegal mining in their territories, the women established the Yuturi Warmi Indigenous Guard, the first all-women Indigenous guard in the Amazon, to protect forests and water.

“Beyond the social impact of our work, we want to share our cultures, raise awareness of the realities our communities are living, and promote alternatives to extractivism—especially here in the Amazon. With Hakhu, we want to show the government that there are projects that generate income while defending nature.”

— Leonardo Cerda, President of Hakhu

The Hakhu Amazon Foundation promotes gender equality as a pathway to sustainable development and environmental protection. Photo: Hakhu Amazon Foundation

This International Day of Peace reminds us that to act for peace is to heal both our conflicts and our connection to the Earth. Indigenous wisdom shows the way. Now is the time to listen, learn and act.

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