Native Future is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that recognizes the inextricable link between native peoples and their lands.  Our mission is to protect marginalized indigenous cultures and to help them conserve the ecosystems in which they live. If you would like to know more about the culture of the Wounaan people and their current struggles,… [Continue Reading]

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The Basilio Perez Scholarship Fund is dedicated to giving Wounaan and Ñgäbe-Buglé families basic help with the cost of educating their children.   It continues the long-running work of new Native Future board member Sara Archbald, who helped initiate the fund in 2002 to help families working on a cooperative farm in El Jacinto, a Buglé… [Continue Reading]

Araceli & Josi

Native Future recognizes that education is an essential component of helping indigenous peoples to maintain their culture and traditions while growing in economically sustainable ways.  Thus, in 2006, Native Future began the Native Education program.  The Native Education Program comprises two sub-projects: Basilio Perez Scholarship Fund Wounaan Higher Education Project

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The Wounaan Land Tenure Program is at the heart of Native Future’s mission.  Through it, Native Future seeks to help Wounaan communities gain legal title to their lands.   Currently, twelve Wounaan communities are without title;  approximately 50,000 hectares of rainforest.  In 2007, Native Future developed a two-year project plan that worked toward achieving this goal with three pilot… [Continue Reading]

RioHondoPlatanares

The Wounaan are one of seven indigenous peoples (Bribri, Buglé, Embera, Kuna, Ngabé, Teribe and Wounaan) who live within the Republic of Panama. One of the smallest indigenous groups in Panama, the majority of the 6,800 Wounaan live in the Darien, Panama’s largest and wildest province. In the Darien province most Wounaan live in small… [Continue Reading]

Rio Hondo Beach

Land Tenure Program

RioHondoPlatanares

The Wounaan Land Tenure Program is at the heart of Native Future’s mission.  Through it, Native … read more

Education Program

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Native Future recognizes that education is an essential component of helping indigenous peoples to … read more

Recent Activity

Native Future Newsletter December 2012

Mapping Cemaco For more than five years Native Future’s land tenure program has supported the Wounaan to map and title their lands, and protect their rainforests. Currently, we are helping the Wounaan learn how to articulate their territorial claims in precise latitude and longitude, as well as document incursions onto their land from ranchers or [...]

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Mapping Cemaco

Mapping Cemaco – 2012 Cameron Ellis The primary goal of Native Future’s mapping efforts is to help the Wounaan articulate their territorial claims in precise latitude and longitude, as well as any incursions onto their land from ranchers or loggers.  Our secondary goal is to train Wounaan in GPS use, so that (once we go [...]

Wounaan Communities of Puerto Lara and Caña Blanca to Receive Title

The Wounaan communities of Puerto Lara and Caña Blanca, in the Darién of Panama, will receive their collective land titles on Monday June 4th, following a thirty-year struggle to have their lands officially recognized. This is a historic event and an important victory for the Wounaan and the Emberá of Eastern Panama, who have fought [...]