The Planting Life Project: Noki Koi-Led Restoration for Biodiversity and Food Sovereignty

We, the Noke Koi people of Varí Teka village, live in the heart of the Amazon, where the forest breathes with us. Every tree, every river, every plant carries the memory of our ancestors. The forest is not only our home — it is our teacher, our pharmacy, our temple, and our history.

Today, we are beginning a new chapter in our story — the Planting Life Project. This project was born from our desire to care for the land that sustains us and to pass on the wisdom of our elders to the next generations. For us, planting is not just about growing food or medicine; it is also about restoring the earth's balance, reviving our culture and ancestral knowledge, and strengthening the deep bond between our people and the forest.

We are starting by protecting and caring for the sacred plants that have always guided our lives and rituals. Many of these species are now endangered, threatened by deforestation, mining, and the loss of traditional knowledge that once ensured their survival. For us, these plants are not just resources — they are relatives, teachers, and healers. Each one holds a story, a song, and a medicine that connects us to the spirit of the forest.

With the guidance of our elders, we are planting edible crops that will sustain our village and nourish the next generations, while also replanting native crops, medicinal plants, and forest trees that have nearly disappeared from our territory. This work is essential because our food and medicine sovereignty depend on the life of the forest. When the forest thrives, we thrive.

By restoring these plants, we are also restoring balance — between people and nature, between body and spirit. The diversity of plants ensures the resilience of our ecosystem, protecting our soil, our water, and the animals that share this land with us. Each seed we plant is an act of resistance and renewal, a way of ensuring that our children inherit not only the knowledge of their ancestors but also the abundance and beauty of a living forest.

Through this project, we are also sharing seeds and seedlings with Noke Koi families across our community. Each family garden becomes a small forest, a place of healing and learning. When we plant together, we are not only restoring biodiversity — we are rebuilding the foundation of our collective well-being. Every seed we plant is a promise to our children that the forest will continue to feed, heal, and protect them.

Our youth are at the heart of this work. They are learning from the elders how to cultivate the land using ancestral agroforestry practices — how to listen to the forest, understand its rhythms, and care for it with respect. These teachings go beyond agriculture; they are lessons in identity, patience, and connection. When the youth plant a seed, they also plant a piece of our culture, ensuring that our knowledge and traditions continue to grow.

As part of this journey, we are creating the Noke Koi Native Seed Bank — a living library of the forest’s memory. Here we will keep and protect the seeds of native crops, trees, and medicinal plants, so they remain in the hands of our people. This seed bank will help us share life within our community and preserve the sacred diversity of our territory.

Each plant we nurture carries a name in our language, each seed a story. By caring for the forest, we are also keeping our language alive and strengthening the cultural expressions that flow from it — our songs, our beadwork, our ceremonies, our way of seeing the world. To plant life is to plant culture.

The Planting Life Project is just beginning, but it already carries the spirit of renewal. It is a path of healing — for the land, for our people, and for the generations yet to come. We invite all who hear the call of the forest to walk with us, to learn from our journey, and to help us keep planting life — one seed, one story, one future at a time.