Taking place on September 10, the Road to COP30 webinar brought together members of the HIH global team with key voices of leadership to discuss how rainforest communities are driving urgent climate action in the lead-up to COP30 and Climate Week NYC. The discussion highlighted advocacy strategies, community-led solutions, and the power of storytelling in shifting global climate agendas toward equity, regeneration, and source-based funding.

Last week, New York City once again became the global stage for climate action as leaders, activists, innovators, and businesses converged for Climate Week NYC 2025. The week highlighted both the scale of the crisis and the creativity of those determined to confront it – and most importantly, it reaffirmed the need to fund climate solutions at the source and the importance of Planetary Health at the center of the climate movement. Here’s what Health In Harmony led on and learned.

As we race toward COP30 and New York Climate Week, we ask you to join us for a critical Road to COP30 call. Rainforest communities need your support more than ever. Collectively, we can fund climate solutions at the source and prioritize equity over extractivism. Learn more and RSVP now.

Only when we treat the health of people and the planet as interconnected do we truly improve planetary health. On a series of recent health expeditions in 2025, vaccines were offered to patients from communities in the Brazilian Amazon as immunization against diseases and viruses, answering a local need for healthcare access as a planetary health solution.

Since January 2025, the Forest Guardian Program has been operating in the Ikongo District – an exciting next step in an initiative that shifts power, authority, and finance into the hands of rainforest guardians, recognizing their leadership in the struggle to protect biodiversity and fight climate change. In just one week in March, twenty community members underwent training to become Forest Guardians as part of the Ikongo Fagnimbogna project, launched with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and Malagasy NGO Ny Tanintsika.

On April 2, 2025, territory agents from the Xipaya Indigenous Land, together with members of the Kuruaya Indigenous Land and the Riozinho do Anfrísio Extractive Reserve, set out on an expedition driven by courage and resistance. The goal was to revitalize territory borders, identify new areas for sustainable use, and combat illegal activities that threaten the rainforest and its people.

The Xipaya Indigenous Territory is located in the municipality of Altamira, in an area rich in biodiversity and extremely important for the conservation of the Brazilian Amazon. Covering approximately 179,000 hectares, the Territory encompasses six villages and is an inspiring history of resistance. Kwazady Xipaya is one of the Indigenous leaders, chief of the Tukamã village, father of five, and a teacher, as is his wife Warawara. Watch a video to hear their perspectives on culture, well-being, and the forest.

The biodiversity-rich Manombo Special Reserve plays a vital role in maintaining the delicate balance of the Earth’s biosphere. Yet, deforestation threats include climate change, logging, and hunting, as well as unexpected forest fires, particularly during the dry season. As part of its efforts to prevent and combat these forest fires, Health In Harmony recently took another step forward by organizing a specialized training course.

This week, we published our 2024 Impact Report, charting successes, growth, and learnings from our climate-critical work alongside communities in Earth’s most vital rainforests. In addition to hearing from these guardians, the 2024 Impact Report details the impact in numbers across Brazil, Panama, Indonesia, Madagascar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Plus, key 2025 plans, press, and financials. 

In 2024, HIH joined a partner in Panama launching a three-year program, Boosting Indigenous Nature-Based Business Models, funded by IDB Labs. Learn more about the project and how Health In Harmony will collaborate with core partners and Indigenous Peoples in Panama.

Next month, HIH is heading for two major global summits for impact-driven innovation, including a key presence at the world's largest event of solutions for the planet, ChangeNOW.

Health In Harmony has 17 years of experience using the innovative methodology known as Radical Listening with rainforest communities. In their new book, ‘The Art of Radical Listening: Revealing Collective Wisdom for Change’, Patricia Plude, D.Min. and HIH founder Dr. Kinari Webb not only document the practice of Radical Listening, but also teach it.

Since 2017, Health In Harmony, along with Indonesian partner Alam Sehat Lestari, has worked with local community members to action the Chainsaw Buyback program. This innovative program supports those wishing to give up illegal logging in seeking alternative livelihoods that do not damage the forest.  Now, the program is developing in exciting new ways.

Rainforests are the most biodiverse terrestrial biome on our planet. The level of biodiversity – the number of different kinds of life you'll find – varies from place to place. Islands are known for their biodiversity, because the isolation of islands allows organisms to evolve in their own, unique directions – and nowhere on Earth has more one-of-a-kind species than Madagascar.