In India, many poor rural communities rely on publicly-owned lands for their food and livelihood. Yet due to the perception that these land are wastelands, there’s a constant pressure to either neglect them or make them productive–resulting in overexploitation and degradation. “As if land can ever be a waste,” says Jagdeesh Rao, founder of Foundation for Ecological Security, which helps villagers legal rights to access, improve, and manage their common lands. About Jagdeesh Rao: Jagdeesh had little knowledge or experience of rural life until his university studies took him to a village barely 100 kilometers from Hyderabad, where he was shocked by the evidence of inequality and the stark poverty that persisted in India, even 40 years after independence. He felt an affinity for those who suffered from discrimination, and worked throughout the 1980s and 1990s with rural communities struggling with issues of poverty and environmental degradation.The Skoll Awardee is Chief Executive of FES.
Jockin Arputham was an Indian community leader and activist, known for his campaigning work of more than 40 years on
The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs promotes a global green supply chain by moving large corporations to make procurement
CoGenerate seeks to bridge the divides between people of different ages, by bringing older and younger people together to solve
Premal Shah is an entrepreneur who co-founded Kiva, a global poverty alleviation non-profit that has raised over $1 billion for
Unlock Aid is a coalition of social innovators seeking to drive policy changes to transform the U.S. approach to global
Learn how Indigenous social innovators and their communities are advancing climate action.
