Rainforests & Indigenous-Informed Regeneration 

 

What is Regeneration?

Placing life at the heart of every action and choice, regeneration extends its influence across the entire spectrum of existence. This principle resonates just as profoundly within the realms of family, communities, cities, schools, spirituality, commerce, and governments, as it does in addressing ecosystems collapse and climate challenges.

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Forests are key providers of global ecosystem services and offer diverse benefits to humanity. Many societal needs, economic activities, and cultural or spiritual values rely on forests. They are essential for food, medicine, water, and provide recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits for millions, while hosting over 80% of terrestrial species (FAO and UNEP, 2020).

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What is Bioregional Financing?

​What if capital could not only circulate but regenerate? Bioregional Financing Facilities (BFFs) enable this by aligning financial systems with the principles of living ecosystems and Indigenous wisdom.  Amid today’s complex crises, the global economy can no longer overlook the ecological and social challenges, recognizing its deep connection to the biosphere. With growing awareness and regulatory pressures, financial actors are increasingly interested in supporting biocultural regeneration.

 

However, relying on outdated financial frameworks risks further commodification and centralization of natural resources. The goal shouldn’t just be closing the nature finance gap, but also rethinking how resources are managed, structured, and governed. Real solutions require deep transformations in systems, relationships, and worldviews.

BFFs present a decentralized model for financial governance, creating project portfolios that drive systemic change and support a regenerative economy. They connect centralized financial resources with grassroots organizations dedicated to regeneration, acting as crucial intermediaries that channel diverse capital into well-coordinated projects. In return, the benefits of regeneration flow back to investors in a community-centered, non-exploitative manner.

BFFs build portfolios that create positive feedback loops, enhancing systemic value across multiple projects. They offer multinational corporations a pathway to reconnect with local communities impacted by their operations, fostering healing and reciprocity. 

By shifting capital from harmful systems to regenerative, bioregional economies, BFFs ensure that capital returns to life and to those who nurture it.
 

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Collaborations

SRI has been working with Indigenous and marginalized peoples worldwide to accelerate technologies and bio-economies to protect and regenerate vital rainforest ecosystems and traditional wisdom and cultures. We were invited to live with the Puyanawa People of Acre Brazil, we gathered and co-led a team of 120 scientists and innovators, qualifying as XPRIZE Rainforest 2023 Semifinalists in Singapore. We brought our work and our partners to speak with us at over a dozen events at Davos World Economic Forum. We co-convened the Science Summit at the United Nations: Digital Democracy for Climate Action in New York and at COP.  We spoke on the rights of nature at Poptech at the Kennedy Center, and with Mongabay at Sun Valley. We are founding members of the Oki Language Project with Eugene Brave Rock to protect Indigenous languages and cultures, and of the Bioplanning Foundation to build cities in harmony with nature. We co-hosted the Global People's Summit during the United Nations General Assembly, convening the world's first fully online accessible and immersive dialogue connecting decision-makers world leaders, the UN and a network of global influencers, with over 400+ million in 190+ countries.

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"Scientists studying the Amazon and all its wondrous assets (agree).

Today we stand in a moment of destiny: The tipping point is here, it is now."

- Carlos Nobre, Nobel Prize-winning scientist

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The Regeneration Generation Film & Campaign

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A 2025 internationally co-produced documentary about collaboration for global culture shift and ecosystem regeneration. Featuring Indigenous leaders who are protectors of sacred ecosystems, and leaders in science, policy, and business, collaborating to shift global consciousness from exploitative to regenerative approaches, from centering wealth accumulation to well-being, from ecosystem collapse and climate catastrophe to a flourishing of humanity in harmony with nature.  

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Synopsis

Regenerating their culture of wellness, spirituality, and harmony with nature, Indigenous forest protectors share their wisdom and collaborate with international artists, innovators, scientists, policy and business leaders. From deep in the Amazon, father and daughter leaders of the Puyanawas journey with filmmaker and SRI founder Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, to the Science Summit at the United Nations General Assembly, COP and Davos World Economic Forum. 

aiming to protect and regenerate their sacred forests and create economic systems for ecosystems preservation worldwide.

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Subjects

Indigenous Youth Climate Activist Txukukaytxi and her father, Puwe Puyanawa, Spiritual Leader of the Puyanawas, lead our journey through the Amazon and to the Science Summit at the United Nations General Assembly, COP and Davos World Economic Forum. There we meet with Nobel Prize-winning and IPCC report-writing scientists such as Beatrice Fihn, Carlos Nobre, and Benjamin Horton; Mere Takoko, Maori climate conservationist, VP of Conservation International NZ; Christina Figueras who led the Paris Agreement of 2015 as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Native American superhero, actor, & cultural revivalist Eugene Brave Rock; Grammy-winning music composer Ricky Kej; business leaders of climate action such as Henk Rogers founder of Tetris and Blue Planet Foundation, and many other heroes of the green transition, as they collaborate.

 

Filmmakers

Directed by Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, of the United Nations Global People's Summit and Science Summit and produced by GK Reid, known collectively for their work with David Bowie on mass shootings in the HBO film The Last Five Years, with Keep A Child Alive with families combatting HIV/AIDS in Africa winning 2 Cannes gold lions, and the CNN Expose award for Girl Epidemic against trafficking of girls in Asia. Produced by Tom DeSanto, best known for X-Men and Transformers, two of Hollywood's most successful and transformational film franchises, and Steve Perry, whose films have won 7 Academy Awards.

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The Regeneration Generation Project 

A comprehensive initiative to protect and restore the biodiversity and Indigenous forest-protectors of the Amazon rainforest, for global good. This project's multifaceted systemic approach includes land restoration, the establishment of a trust to ensure long-term sustainability and protection, educational campaigns, development of bioeconomies, biodiversity credits for intergenerational income for forest protectors, and rehabilitation projects, to help all integrate into the green transition.

 

Key Objectives

1. Restoration of Sacred Lands: Land tenure security, securing the most critical rainforests that are endangered, and returning them to Indigenous stewardship, while providing infrastructure and support for their protection and regeneration.

2. Develop Socio-Bioeconomies based around the sustainable use and restoration of healthy standing forests and flowing rivers and support the well-being, knowledge, rights, and territories of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Following the SPA Bioeconomy Policy Brief released during the Amazon Presidents' Summit in 2023 (www.https://www.theamazonwewant.org/spa_publication/policy-brief-supporting-socio-bioeconomies-of-healthy-standing-forests-and-flowing-rivers-in-the-amazon/).

3. Developing Carbon Credits into Biodiversity Credits: Creating sustainable income sources for Indigenous people through environmental conservation efforts that also contribute to global climate solutions:

   1. Emphasize the transition in economic valuation from timber, where the value of chopped wood surpasses that of a living tree, to recognizing a living tree for its intrinsic valuable as nurturer of intersectional thriving of biodiversity, thereby inverting the traditional valuation to prioritize living trees over timber.

   2. Developing technologies and democratic data cooperatives to measure and monitor biodiversity of the forest and its associated carbon/biodiversity credits, ensuring that Indigenous populations guide these efforts while also being beneficiaries intergenerationally of their outcomes.

4. Educational Campaigns: Highlighting Indigenous stories and broader environmental issues through films, series, and books aimed at raising global awareness and support. Regeneration efforts must originate from the heart of ancient wisdom and practices (sacred knowledge) and from the heart of Nature itself (sacred lands).

   1. Develop the “Heart of Regeneration” to provide a space where theory and practice converge, furthering the project's mission of environmental conservation, cultural preservation, and global education on these critical issues.

   2. Measuring and Monitoring Technologies such as satellites, high-definition webcams at strategic locations within the Home of Regeneration, such as a sky bridge or its highest point, to provide live streaming capabilities. This initiative could serve multiple purposes:

   3. Educational Tool: Offer global audiences a real-time window into the Amazon, allowing for virtual tours, educational programs, and increased awareness of the forest's biodiversity.

   4. Conservation Effort: Act as a deterrent against illegal activities by providing real-time surveillance of the forest, potentially in partnership with local law enforcement or conservation groups.

   5. Technological Partnership: Collaborate with technology providers like Planet and Starlink to ensure reliable internet connectivity, showcasing how modern technology can support remote communities and conservation efforts.

5. The Trust: A legal entity designed to hold the land with the Indigenous peoples as perpetual beneficiaries, focusing on cultural and biodiversity preservation, education, and supporting the broader mission through the development of biodiversity/carbon credits.

6. Global Collaboration and Support: Engaging a wide network of scientists, innovators, nonprofits, and climate leaders, including recognition and support from high-profile platforms and organizations.

Proposal: Data cooperatives, being multistakeholder by nature, can be instrumental in fulfilling this endeavor.​

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Pilot Project

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PUYANAWA SACRED FOREST

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Problem 

In Acre, Northwestern Brazil, the Puyanawa Tribe lived for thousands of years in harmony with nature, known as Protectors of the Sacred Forests. 120 years ago, much of the tribe was massacred, enslaved, and dispossessed from their ancestral lands by enslavers. Now their Sacred Forests are threatened by illegal burning, contributing to the "Savanization of the Amazon" and ecosystems collapse.

 

Solutions

1. We aim to purchase 11,000 hectares of virgin Sacred Forest in Acre, to protect one of the world's greatest biodiversity hotspots, returning the land to the Puyanawa People who have nurtured it for many generations.

2. We aim to create an institute for education, research, cultural, and ecosystem regeneration, by developing and implementing bio-economies and biodiversity / hybrid carbon credits, to provide climate justice and ecosystems regeneration income intergenerationally for indigenous forest protectors.

 

Campaign

We are co-creating a film and initiative to reverse the tide of devastation and inspire hope with new approaches to ecological protection worldwide.  

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Global Benefits

This project will provide a model to protect indigenous peoples and ecosystems globally

 

Photo ©Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri @SRI at the Science Summit at the United Nations General Assembly: Ditigal Democracy for Climate Action