“Nature doesn’t need protection,” says Bhavna Choudhury, founder of The Indegenous, a nonprofit organization leading the charge to revive and preserve ancestral knowledge that holds the key to sustainable solutions for our planet’s future.
As the world grapples with the climate crisis, the wisdom of indigenous communities, often marginalized, is becoming an invaluable resource. Through advocacy, capacity building, and knowledge sharing, The Indegenous empowers Indigenous communities worldwide, ensuring their voices are heard on critical global platforms, such as the UNFCCC.
“The planet is becoming unliveable for humans, and the conversation should be about how we should be saving ourselves, not nature. Indigenous peoples understand this reality since we face climate disasters on a regular basis.”
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“Indigenous beliefs are based around ancestral and nature worship,” adds Choudhury. . “All the stories I grew up with were about how above all, Mother Nature takes precedence.” She recalls an old story from Assam, where the indigenous people believe that Maa Kamakhya, the goddess of the Kamakhya Temple, will one day submerge under water, bringing the entire region—including the city of Guwahati—under the sea. “It’s a rather daunting warning about how climate crises probably aren’t a new phenomenon,” she reflects.
For Choudhury, these traditional tales are more than folklore—they are a profound reminder of the deep connection between humans and nature.
Choudhury’s vision was born from a deep concern about the diminishing relevance of “nature-based solutions” and “traditional ecological knowledge” in a rapidly globalizing world. “The idea was to document the works of our ancestors that have been passed down traditionally and to share our rich heritage on the Internet,” she explains. Choudhury, who grew up surrounded by indigenous traditions, believes that the value of oral knowledge—passed down through generations and embedded in local languages—is steadily being lost. “And with that, so does that knowledge base,” she explains. “I wanted to change that narrative.”
One of the NGO’s notable initiatives is a community-led project at Kaziranga Biodiversity Park, where the organization has documented 337 varieties of indigenous rice and cultivated a living garden of medicinal plants. Before her involvement, knowledge of these valuable resources was little known. This effort exemplifies the organization’s broader mission to fill the gaps where governments have failed, providing essential advocacy and documentation of Indigenous cultures and practices.
The organization has gathered vital data on indigenous populations and their ecosystems through consultations with over 150 indigenous groups across North-East India, Western India, and parts of Africa. By amplifying the voices of communities from the Global South, the organization is creating a platform for these often-overlooked groups to be heard in the global discourse on climate change and sustainability.
“Indigenous peoples do not have an ‘ownership’ mentality towards nature,” says Choudhury. “We do not preserve or conserve nature; we cohabit with nature. Words like conservation mean that nature needs protection, but anyone who has seen old monuments like ‘Angkor Wat’ knows that when you leave nature alone, she comes back on her own.”
Choudhury says the conversation surrounding conservation needs to shift. “Language shapes the way that a person thinks. Today, culture and languages have become more interwoven than ever. Language and cultural preservation are driven in large part by public policy,” she explains. “At our level as an NGO, The Indegenous encourages Indigenous youth to engage with their own languages, stories, and heritage.”
In 2021, the NGO hosted a writing competition for Indigenous youth under 18, with over 600 students participating and sharing their stories in their native languages which were then translated into English to amplify their reach. The Indegenous also has curated a growing digital library of books written in Indigenous languages to help preserve vital cultural resources for future generations.
Looking ahead, Choudhury envisions a future where indigenous voices are no longer tokenized or sidelined. “My vision for the future is one where we are not tokenized, where we are major decision-makers with large funding to drive impact. The future of The Indegenous is about community engagement. Our public consultations have told us that we care about ‘Free, Prior and Informed Consent’. We want to take this forward as a policy position by including the several movements that often get overlooked but are crucial to protecting our collective futures.”
She sees a transformative shift on the horizon as women, for the first time in history, inherit half of the world’s wealth – a change that will reshape global thinking, investments, and solutions to the world’s challenges.
In 2025, The Indegenous plans to launch a major campaign to mobilize youth and women’s networks to advocate for a global pledge that mandates 10 percent minimum land coverage on private properties. “We hope to address some of the larger political problems with solutions,” Bhavna says. “We are working with more and more ground-based indigenous communities to promote our products, improve our livelihoods, and embrace the biodiversity of our blessed regions.”
“The time for change is now, and it must start with us.”