United for Mother Earth
Trees&Circles is a registered Swiss non-profit foundation. We partner with women from local and indigenous communities to protect and restore threatened ecosystems, and to support indigenous cultural and territorial defence.
The problem Trees&Circles addresses:
The interconnected crises of climate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss are rapidly undermining the foundations of our wellbeing and jeopardising our children’s future. These global threats exacerbate structural inequalities and colonial legacies, disproportionately impacting communities already afflicted by poverty, marginalisation, discrimination, violence, and land dispossession. Women and girls from local and indigenous communities are among those most severely affected.
As recognised by the United Nations, effectively addressing these pressing global challenges requires locally led actions. Community-led conservation is key for sustainable, just, and gender responsive solutions. Notably, the participation, expertise, and leadership of women from local and indigenous communities is essential. As natural resources managers, knowledge transmitters, and caretakers, women are uniquely positioned to create and implement holistic, long-term solutions that benefit their entire communities and safeguard Mother Earth on behalf of all of us.
Despite their crucial role in protecting biodiversity-rich ecosystems and major carbon sinks, women from local and indigenous communities are systematically underfunded, which signals a systemic lack of support. While indigenous people account for 6.2% of global population, they receive less than 1% of global philanthropic funding. From this fraction, less than 10% is dedicated specifically to support indigenous women-led initiatives.
We believe all life is precious. Together we can create the conditions where our children and all lifeforms can thrive.
The solution Trees&Circles proposes:
We partner with women from local and indigenous communities to protect and restore threatened forests, wildlife and ecosystems, and to support indigenous cultural and territorial defence. We focus on working with underserved communities, who are in close connection with their territories. Our joint projects address the priorities and needs identified by the women, building on their expertise and vital role as leaders of climate and environmental action.
We contribute with technical, capacity building, legal and financial means. Most importantly, we invest in long-term partnerships based on trust, respect, mutuality, care and companionship. We are in continuous conversation with our partners, and we are committed to support them and their communities for the long haul. We believe this approach is fundamental for sustainable impact.
In addition, we offer professional support for trauma survivors, as many of the women we partner with have suffered gender-based violence, systemic neglect, and decades of armed conflict in their territories.
As a way of building connections from where new ways of thinking and relating can emerge, we also provide intercultural meeting spaces where our support community and our indigenous partners can come together and learn from each other.
Trees&Circles’ impact:
Since our start in 2024 we have established long-term partnerships with women from three local and indigenous communities in Colombia, Indonesia and Kenya.
Colombia. Indigenous U’wa women from the Andean cloud forest. The U’wa territory is home to a unique biodiversity and plays a major role in regulating water cycles and in carbon sequestration.
The U’wa people and their ancestral lands have been subject to colonial, governmental, insurgent and extractivist violence. We are developing an organic coffee production project following ancestral and agroforestry principles. This generates economic means for the U’wa’s long-term strategies for cultural and territorial defence, while supporting the community’s food security and sovereignty.
Indonesia. Local women from Sumatra – Gunung Leuser National Park Buffer Zone. The Sumatran rainforest is a major carbon sink and a biodiversity hotspot threatened by deforestation, in particular by the expansion of oil palm monocultures. We are restoring and reforesting degraded land following agroforestry principles. The restored areas become a safe corridor for critically endangered species such as tigers, rhinos, elephants and orangutans. The program includes buying land back, countering neo-colonial forms of displacement driven by tourism developments. We also support our partner’s conservations school, where the village’s children learn how to care for their home forest.
Kenya. Pastoralist Samburu women. Lions are officially endangered in Kenya. We are developing habitat recovery activities, which support lions’ living conditions, so that they can thrive again in the semi-arid savannah. These include planting trees, creating grassland enclosures, removing the very noxious mathenge invasive species, and digging water holes. The women’s leadership is also key to lessen lions-human conflict driven by climate change, habitat loss and infrastructure development. The program contributes to cultural defence while enhancing the women’s and community’s economy.
By 2037 we aim to be in close partnership with women from eight indigenous communities, creating with them a network of support and knowledge sharing, and protecting thousands of hectares of biodiversity-rich ecosystems and carbon sinks.
Thank you for your generous support.
Trees&Circles
