Environment

First Nations Development Institute is a national Native American-led organization whose mission is to strengthen American Indian economies to support healthy Native communities. We believe Native Peoples hold the capacity and ingenuity to ensure the sustainable, economic, spiritual, and cultural well-being of their communities. Based on this, we invest in Native communities and their ability to promote their economies, nurture their young people, strengthen their institutions and assets, and rebuild their Native food systems.

Big Life Foundation protects over 1.6 million acres of wilderness in the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem of East Africa, partnering with local communities to protect nature for the benefit of all.

Since its inception, Big Life has expanded to employ hundreds of local Maasai rangers—with more than 30 permanent outposts and tent-based field units, 14 patrol vehicles, 2 tracker dogs, and 2 planes for aerial surveillance.

Co-founded in September 2010 by photographer Nick Brandt, conservationist Richard Bonham, and entrepreneur Tom Hill, Big Life was the first organization in East Africa to establish coordinated cross-border anti-poaching operations.