Home Planet Fund was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to ask Sanjay to expand on this perspective for our supporters.

Home Planet Fund (HPF): Why do you feel it is important, for you personally, to be on the board of Home Planet Fund at this time?

Sanjay Joshie (SJ): When I was invited to be part of the board, I was really excited with the idea that was shared with me by Dilafruz behind the creation of Home Planet Fund. I knew a bit about Patagonia’s work, so the whole idea kind of resonated with me as it aligned both with my personal as well as professional goals. My total career has been around working with local communities, or you can say Indigenous people, helping them solve their own problems and building their community institutions. All these issues were around conservation of natural resources, which is very much aligned with how we can mitigate the impact of climate change.

So understanding the challenges, I was also wondering whether I can be truly making some difference at HPF, along with the present responsibility that I was shouldering at that particular juncture. But I think I took a wise decision because the idea really motivated me, so I thought, let’s give it a try. Since then, I realized it was a wonderful decision for me. I believe, for Home Planet Fund as well as myself, we are part of a journey of shaping an organization which is totally dedicated to supporting Indigenous people as well as addressing the issues of climate change.

HPF: That’s wonderful to hear. From your perspective and experience, why is it that Indigenous peoples and local communities around the world are so effective at their work of mitigating the climate crisis and protecting biodiversity hotspots?

SJ: What I have seen in my life and in my career is that Indigenous people are the ones who are the front liners when we talk about climate change and anything to do with climate change. They are the ones who really feel the brunt as well. So they have the deepest understanding of the local environment and the challenges we are facing. If we talk about the larger aspects of climate change when we talk about greenhouse gas emissions or the ozone or the other large issues, they are the ones who are really, really getting impacted in their day to day life and livelihoods with the changes that climate change is bringing in.

I would say their lives and livelihoods are both intrinsically linked to their natural resources of land, water and vegetation, which directly or indirectly is linked to their livelihoods, of which, generally, is around agriculture or livestock management. So what I believe is that if these people are provided the right resources and support, they are the ones who are more than capable of building the knowledge and the skills needed to adapt to and mitigate these impacts. Empowering them will not only address the immediate challenges, but also will ensure long term sustainability. This is because when the communities are actively involved in driving solutions, it spreads the ability to create lasting change at the grassroots. This approach really will strengthen their resilience as well as foster a sense of ownership over the actions being taken to protect their own lands and livelihoods.

HPF: What do you hope for the future of Home Planet Fund?

SJ: I believe the actions of Home Planet Fund will speak for itself. As a board member, as part of the organization, I am committed to making philanthropy make a difference. So I’m sure as the work will grow, more people will connect with the mission of Home Planet Fund. Whether we are talking about donors, or we are talking about implementers, or we are talking about even the policy makers, we will see a growing body of practice that will evolve over a period of time, and this body of work will only garner increasing support from all corners. Home Planet Fund is focused at driving real, tangible change on the ground, particularly improving the lives of Indigenous people. And I am sure in times to come we will hear that Home Planet Fund has become one of the leading philanthropies in the world.

HPF: That is so wonderful, and humbling, to hear. In a way, it feels like there is a genuine synthesis happening between you and the other board member’s leadership of Home Planet Fund and our partners around the world.

SJ: I would just say that after the initial slow start, we are really on course in terms of creating impacts on ground, which I truly believe are going to be some of the great ideas of how philanthropy should support local issues and local people in whatever manner it is required. In this way, the Indigenous people and local communities Home Planet Fund partners with are the ones who really, one can say, build a resilience amongst themselves to be able to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The climate crisis is no longer a theory. It’s a reality. Now everyone is seeing the changes in the climate and the impact it is creating on these poor and marginalized indigenous people.

HPF: Many people, particularly in the west, are still coming up to speed on the concept of the very direct connection between Indigenous peoples and local communities and the places where they live, and that you cannot talk about one without including the other. Your work has focussed so heavily on supporting people and their local economies, and this is the same thing as working directly to mitigate the climate crisis. Can you please expand on this?

SJ: Indigenous people and local communities have adequate knowledge and capacities in terms of working on their own, in terms of adaptation, and in terms of using sustainable practices over the past. But with changes in the climate, they are really finding it hard to adapt.

An example is the changes in the rainfall pattern in my country. If I talk about the changes in the weather, which is really impacting the growing seasons and the crops these indigenous farmers are growing in their own localities, it is hard for them now to really tackle these issues on their own. First, they don’t possess the kind of new knowledge that is required to mitigate the impacts. Second, they don’t have enough resources have a plan for every circumstance. Thirdly, whenever one crop fails, they can’t just grow a different crop. So in such a situation, their livelihoods get severely challenged, and they have to adopt to different ways of working. Maybe some migrate to the cities to work as labor. Some resort to harvesting of natural resources like wood from the forest, to sell it in the local markets. In these ways, both create individual insecurities as well as creating damage to the natural resources, especially forests.

So in such situations, the work that we are trying to do is building the capacities of these local communities to adapt to these situation, learn new practices and complement their own knowledge with new knowledge that they gain out of the capacity building. In these ways, they are the custodian of their own future, both in terms of adapting to as well as mitigating the impacts of climate change.