ISLAND REACH

Island Reach is a practical and engaged response to challenges communities face as a result of climate change and the intensifying loss of biological and cultural diversity. IR serves as a force multiplier for our partners' local activities, providing resources and access, facilitating peer-to-peer exchanges, dialoguing about knowledge, methods, and tools, and documenting stories, all intended to strengthen locally-led actions and support self-determination.

Island Reach is focused on three main targets:

Engaging with partners in a collaborative and negotiatory process to support grassroots initiatives. IR recognizes the inherent value of Indigenous and local communities’ knowledge systems and science, including their adaptive practices. From that foundation we move forward collectively to consider points of intersection with, or contributions from, the social and natural sciences in order to address today's unprecedented challenges.
Using video as a resource for culture brokers to share stories regionally and internationally. These videos are used to a) inspire action and innovation; b) build greater recognition and reciprocity; and c) raise new questions, all in a manner intended to both support difference and inform specific grassroots actions.
Developing workshops for activists and advocates to catalyze debate and amplify skills. Our aim is to contribute to grassroots movements for environmental and cultural protections, and for climate justice.

Check out our recent video Immuto (Change) and the 2018 Annual Report to learn more.

Our Inspiration is...

the enormous diversity of life on Earth as expressed in the variety of ecosystems and plant and animal species found in nature, as well the incredible range of cultures and languages in human societies, bound all together in a complex web of life. Framed as biocultural diversity, these dynamic relationships are both the source and the objective of a robust and resilient world.