About | People's Planet Project

A Climate Justice Collective

About us

We are an Indigenous-led initiative and a global collective of filmmakers, geographers, and legal experts working toward a world in which Indigenous peoples have the agency to halt environmental destruction caused by industries encroaching on their lands and seas.

Through strategic partnerships and powerful visual storytelling, we aim to reclaim forest territories, preserve biodiversity, and bring justice to the forefront of environmental and human rights issues worldwide.

Theory of Change

Indigenous forests, land, language, traditions, and livelihoods are preserved through storytelling.

OUR GOALS.

A new framework for international litigation is inspired that promotes a different way of providing evidence in court that protects Indigenous and environmental rights

Indigenous peoples are the creators of their own stories and are enabled to use video technology and spatial data to prove the violations of their rights

WHAT WE WISH TO SEE

LONG-TERM GOALS

THE IMPACT

WHAT WE DO

USE STORYTELLING TO PRESERVE AND SHARE INDIGENOUS LANDS, LANGUAGES, AND TRADITIONS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.

Indigenous peoples create their own stories using video and spatial data to expose rights violations.

Communities create systemic legal change through court victories using their own collected evidence.

Facilitate access to relevant expertise and networks to advance Indigenous Social, Cultural, and Economic Rights.

Underrepresented participants are empowered to explore storytelling and share evidence-based practices within Indigenous networks.

Indigenous communities connect with environmental lawyers to initiate court cases, where human, environmental, and Indigenous rights are recognized as interconnected, and Indigenous media is accepted as valid evidence.

Ensure youth empowerment by involving them in cultural preservation and storytelling, with community feedback integrated at all stages of content creation.

Inclusive storytelling groups are formed in each community, helping Indigenous communities build strong, self-led advocacy and cultural rights.

Storytelling tools and skills are tailored to community needs, supporting the creation of intersectional films and maps tied to legal rights, and shared by trained community advocates.

Build a trusted, long-term network of diverse advocates- including community leaders, geospatial analysts, filmmakers, and lawyers- rooted in Indigenous ownership and partnership.

Participants are empowered to explore diverse storytelling voices and gather evidence, while raising global awareness of Indigenous issues through Indigenous perspectives.

Indigenous communities strengthen legal knowledge by linking it with film, mapping, storytelling workshops, and connections to legal experts, enabling active participation in legal cases.

All projects are grounded in Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. Women participate in storytelling, with active community approval, and partnerships are built with deep respect for local traditions

Stories are shared across platforms but remain fully owned and controlled by the community and its partners, ensuring cultural integrity and self-determination.

People's Planet Project remains a long-term point of contact for communities throughout each challenge, sustaining engagement and support beyond project timelines.

Indigenous-led, sustainable advocacy networks are supported through adaptable, community-driven storytelling and holistic network facilitation at all levels.

Local ambassadors and networks co-lead initiatives like GeoStory Camps, fostering leadership, inclusion, and grassroots capacity.

Root Values

Where it all started, the story of our founder.

As an Amazigh filmmaker - Indigenous to North Africa from the Atlas Mountains, I come from a civilization of storytellers. My roots run deep into the soil of resistance - a civilization of nomads, poets, guardians of the land who’ve always known that the earth does not belong to us, we belong to her.

It began deep in the world’s remaining forests. I was there with my camera, embedded with Indigenous communities, alongside local filmmakers, documenting stories of climate injustice, of eviction, of resistance.

We captured stories of destruction, and each time I reached back out. I heard the same echoes: new concessions, new arrests, new scars carved into sacred land. And I began to ask myself: What is the point of making films if the people are left facing the same fight, again and again? So we asked a new question: How can we help? As creatives, as filmmakers, as allies? And the answer was clear: Put the tools in our hands. Not to speak for us, but to stand with us.

That’s how People’s Planet Project was born.

An Indigenous-led collective of filmmakers, geographers, and lawyers working with frontline communities across the Amazon, the Congo Basin, the Leuser Rainforest and beyond. Using cameras, maps, and satellites as shields and testimony.

Because a camera in the right hands is more than a lens. It’s a witness. A map is more than a chart. It’s a reclaiming. A story is more than memory. It’s resistance. And together, we’re not just telling stories, we’re building legal cases, reclaiming territory, defending life.