Guardianship is an inclusive and diverse model of land and water governance

Guardianship is a model of shared responsibility—where communities, organizations, and governments work together to protect and restore the natural world for future generations.

Conventional governqnce systems often focus on ownership and control. Guardianship, instead, is rooted in relationship and responsibility. It recognizes that true protection of our planet comes not from holding title, but from a deep and enduring connection with place—and from the collective care of those who depend on it.

At its core, guardianship is about partnership and accountability. It brings together local communities, Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups, and allies who share a commitment to nurture ecosystems and cultural landscapes over the long term.

Many Indigenous, rural, and Afro-descendent communities have practiced guardianship for generations—living examples of how care, reciprocity, and balance sustain both people and planet. Guardianship extends that principle outward, inviting everyone to participate in regeneration.

For donors and partners, supporting guardianship means investing in a collaborative, future-focused model—one that unites people around a shared mission: to restore balance, renew ecosystems, and ensure that the places we love continue to thrive.

Our mission is to sustain and support a global alliance of communities that are demonstrating intergenerational responsibility of care for land and water. We want guardianship to be recognised as a legitimate model of governance — one that institutions, authorities, funders and donors can support through effective, place-based and community-led practice.

Our aim is to champion and catalyse guardianship through legal recognition of community titles, informal alliances, co-stewarding arrangements, land tenure reform, forest twinning, memoranda of understanding with local governments, advocacy, policy change, paralegal advice and, of course, economic support and capacity building— one guardian community at a time.

Since its foundation in 2022, GWW has focused only on 8 communities in 6 countries to ensure continuity, longevity and sustainability of action. We work with four different types of guardians: Indigenous, Afro-descendent, traditional rural and urban youth.

In short, we believe that we can regenerate the way we all relate to land based on the cultivation of shared values, especially long-term responsibility for, and reciprocity with, the natural world.