Environmental charity · Established 1988

The people who know the land best belong where its future is decided.

The Foundation for Gaia helps Indigenous, minority and local communities bring their environmental knowledge to the United Nations — and to the decisions that affect their lands and territories.

Our work → About the Foundation
A UK environmental charity
Established 1988
Education & UN engagement
Grounded in communities' knowledge
Registered charity
No. 327843, England & Wales

Our mission

We work from the conviction that lasting environmental protection depends on the knowledge and participation of the communities who live closest to these ecosystems — and that their knowledge belongs where environmental decisions are made.

The Foundation for Gaia is an environmental charity dedicated to environmental education and the protection and sustainable management of natural resources.

We support these communities to bring that knowledge to the United Nations and to have a say in the decisions affecting their lands and territories, so they can continue to help protect their environment and sustain their way of life — consistent with the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

About the Foundation

An environmental charity, rooted in the knowledge of those closest to the land.

The Foundation for Gaia is a UK-registered environmental charity dedicated to environmental education and the protection and sustainable management of natural resources. Established in 1988, we work from the conviction that lasting environmental protection depends on the knowledge and participation of the communities who live closest to these ecosystems.

Our role is a practical one. We help Indigenous peoples, minorities and local communities engage with the international bodies where environmental decisions are made — the United Nations system in particular. We support them to understand these mechanisms, to take part in them effectively, and to bring their first-hand knowledge of these environments, and the pressures affecting them, to the people making decisions about them.

The environmental challenges these communities face are pressing: the degradation of the ecosystems they depend on, and the mounting pressures of extraction, land use and a changing climate. Founded on the principle that those closest to environmental harm must be heard by those with the power to address it, the Foundation works to ensure their knowledge and concerns are not only heard, but acted upon — consistent with the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

Our vision

A world in which the people who protect the Earth — Indigenous peoples, minorities and local communities — can speak for themselves in the halls of international power, free from persecution, and help shape the decisions that affect their lands, their rights and their future.

Our heritage

Established in 1988.

The Foundation was founded by a group of environmental thinkers and advocates, and its founding trustees included figures who helped shape the modern environmental movement. That heritage continues to guide our purpose today: education, the protection of natural resources, and respect for the knowledge of the communities who live closest to the natural world.

Founding trustees, 1988

  • Vita de Waal
  • Edward Goldsmith
  • Jonathon Porritt
  • Eileen Noakes
  • Jakob von Uexküll
Established
1988
Registered charity
No. 327843 · England & Wales
Focus
Environmental education & engagement

Our work

From the community to the United Nations.

Our work turns this mission into practice through three connected activities — each grounded in environmental education and in the participation of the communities who live closest to these ecosystems.

Education & awareness

Environmental education and awareness

Our educational and awareness-raising work runs in two directions. Through capacity building, we equip Indigenous, minority and local communities with an understanding of the international mechanisms — particularly within the UN system — through which environmental protections can be advocated for and defended, and how to engage them effectively.

And we work to raise awareness among UN bodies, States and civil society organisations of the environmental issues affecting communities around the world, so that those making decisions understand the realities on the ground.

At the United Nations

Facilitating participation at the United Nations

We enable communities to bring their environmental concerns to the United Nations — supporting oral and written statements, submissions to Special Procedures and Treaty Bodies, and side events in Geneva, and connecting community representatives with UN experts and States' missions.

This allows communities to speak directly to those making decisions about the environments they depend on, and to help protect their natural environments from harm.

With States

Engaging States and decision-makers

Beyond raising awareness, we work directly with States and their missions to encourage concrete action — upholding their environmental obligations, reflecting communities' concerns in international decisions, and advancing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

The people closest to environmental harm must be heard by those with the power to address it.

The principle at the heart of our work

Our work → Get in touch

Contact

Get in touch.

We're currently reactivating the Foundation and finalising our contact channels. Full details will appear here soon.

Contact details coming soon

New contact channels are on the way.

The Foundation for Gaia is being brought back into active operation. Once our new contact details are in place, you'll be able to reach us here — including for partnership enquiries from Indigenous, minority and community organisations, and from missions and civil society.

In the meantime, the Foundation's registration and public details can be viewed on the official register:
Charity Commission register — no. 327843 ↗