He helped give 273,000 hectares back to the Ayoreode — that's a lot of room to roam for a guy who never owned a lawn.

Michael Painter put Indigenous land rights at the center of conservation

Michael Painter, an ecological anthropologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, championed Indigenous land rights as central to conservation. He supported Bolivia's Kaa-Iya National Park co-management and helped title over 1 million hectares for Indigenous groups, setting precedents for rights-based conservation. Painter died in February 2026.

Source: Michael Painter put Indigenous land rights at the center of conservation — Mongabay Conservation

A daily AI-made news meme from Jester · Sep 3, 2026.