RT Journal Article
T1 Indigenous Peoples and local communities as agents of transformative change for sustainability
A1 Reyes García, Victoria
A1 Villasante Larramendi, Carlos Sebastián
K1 Anthropology
K1 Social sciences
K1 Sustainability
AB Achieving just, equitable, and effective sustainability transformations requires diverse social engagement. This paper identifies five key roles played by Indigenous Peoples and local communities as agents of transformative change: embodying sustainable lifeways, resisting harm and defending rights, extending their practices to influence broader systems, and offering foundational models for care-oriented economies and governance. Through illustrative examples, we show how Indigenous Peoples and local communities actively contribute to global transformation. We emphasize the importance of engaging with a wide range of actors in supporting, expanding, and deepening these contributions to realize meaningful, systemic change toward a sustainable and just future.
PB Nature Research
YR 2026
FD 2026
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/46470
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/46470
LA eng
NO Reyes-García, V., Nelson, V., Bonilla-Moheno, M., Hausner, V. H., Leventon, J., Wheeler, H. C., Aksoy, Z., Bates, P., Carino, J., Dabezies, J. M., Frantzeskaki, N., Gordon, E., Gosnell, H., Guibal, C., Gurung, J., Heatta, M. J., Hernandez, Y., Huambachano, M., Ifejika Speranza, C., A Magris, R., … Villasante, S. (2026). Indigenous Peoples and local communities as agents of transformative change for sustainability. Communications earth & environment, 7(1), 102. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03098-z
NO We received no specific funding for this work; all authors involved in the IPBES do so on a voluntary basis. The IPBES Transformative Change Assessment was made possible thanks to many contributions to the IPBES trust fund from governments (www.ipbes.net/donors). VRG and SV acknowledge support from the European Research Council (VRG: FP7-771056-LICCI and SV: FP7-101002784-EQUALSEA). SV also acknowledges the financial support to CRETUS from the Rede CIGUS, and the support of the Earth Commission and Future Earth. HCW acknowledges support from the Canada-Inuit Nunangat-United Kingdom Arctic Research Programme (CINUK). NF acknowledges the support from the Department Board and the Faculty of Geosciences of Utrecht University who supported financially and institutionally her participation in the IPBES Transformative Change Assessment. HG acknowledges support from the U.S. Global Change Research Program for her participation in the IPBES Transformative Change Assessment. This work contributes to the ‘María de Maeztu’ Programme for Units of Excellence of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CEX2019-000940-M).
DS Minerva
RD 20 may 2026