Global Indigenous Partnership for Climate Action Expand into India: BIPA Formally Onboard Under Satoyama Mace Initiative

In a major expansion of transnational climate action drive, the Satoyama Mace Initiative, hosted at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, has formally accepted the membership of the East Indian/Mobaim Mulvasi Indigenous community from Mumbai, India. The community, represented by the Bombay’s Indigenous Peoples Association (BIPA), enters the landmark collaboration of Global Indigenous Partnership for Climate Action (GIPCA), establishing a collaborative platform focused on Indigenous stewardship, biodiversity conservation, and nature-based climate solutions. By combining the Initiative’s cutting-edge peer-reviewed scientific frameworks with BIPA’s traditional ecological knowledge and extensive regional network, the partnership seeks to operationalize large-scale regional carbon sequestration models aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Indigenous society of Mobaim operated as an interconnected, self-sustaining network of specialized clans where community roles were deeply tied to the ecosystem:

The Koli: Traditional stewards of the marine environments and fisheries.

The Kulbi: Inland farmers managing seasonal monsoon rice cultivation.

The Kumbhar: Local potters creating earthenware for water and grain storage.

The Khari / Aagri: Salt pan workers managing the delicate coastal wetlands.

The Kapri: Traditional weavers providing clothing for the collective tribe.

A central pillar of their ecological heritage is the veneration of the sacred “Umbhar” tree (sp. Ficus glomerata). Because the tree naturally acts as an unerring biological indicator of shallow, healthy groundwater tables, it served as the literal anchor around which indigenous settlements historically flourished.

The GIPCA structural model is explicitly engineered to honor and reinforce this legacy. Operating on a voluntary approach anchored by Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), the Satoyama Mace Initiative states that the indigenous communities remain the primary decision-makers over their lands and traditional landscapes, while the platform may assist with technical support such as ecological monitoring, carbon baseline assessments, project design, and access to international climate finance systems.

BIPA brings a powerful, proven track record of field execution to the GIPCA. “We are preserving and collecting indigenous plant species, conserving climate resilient salt-tolerant rice varieties through seed bank and traditional ecological knowledge,” stated Prof. Mendes, faculty at Xavier University, Mumbai. “In Satara, we are planning a large-scale drought reversal, native reforestation, and ecological greening activities covering about 300 square kilometers. Across Maharashtra, Odisha, Gujarat, and Rajasthan, the potential operational landscape is vast.” He added that the full scale of implementation would depend on securing funding for on-the-ground drought reversal and ecosystem restoration projects, with plans to later expand beyond India into international collaboration.

The Satoyama Mace Initiative, is a transnational climate action and sustainability platform, endorsed by the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI). Affiliated with global expert bodies, the initiative develops advanced carbon mitigation methodologies aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), supporting community-based conservation across socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) worldwide.

The Satoyama Mace Initiative Registry is a scientific home for high-integrity carbon registry framework designed to support biodiversity-positive, community-led carbon projects. By combining rigorous scientific standards with transparent governance and Indigenous participation, the Registry seeks to build international confidence among governments, corporate climate buyers, investors, and multilateral organizations while ensuring that climate finance directly supports local livelihoods, ecosystem restoration, and cultural continuity.

For partners and community members, the Initiative provides fully standardized, KMGBF-aligned methodology frameworks, comprehensive remote sensing analytics, and a direct pipeline to ethical international climate finance systems, entirely removing commercial middleman overhead. India represents the first South Asian regional partnership under GIPCA, creating a scalable model for future collaborations across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific.

Interested Indigenous organizations and environmental cooperatives are encouraged to review partnership protocols and submit initial participation inquiries via the official Global Indigenous Partnership for Climate Action registration platform. The Initiative welcomes dialogue with Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, universities, conservation agencies, philanthropic foundations, and responsible private-sector partners seeking to develop high-integrity, community-centered climate solutions aligned with the KMGBF, the Paris Agreement and SDGs.

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