During a time when the rise of white Christian nationalism and increase in bigotry and racism is prominent in America, the Loka Initiative has spent the last four years building bridges with church leaders from the Evangelical community and bringing them together with scientists, theologians, experts and trainers to take on creation care and climate action. Over this period, we have provided training, capacity, and resources on the topics of biodiversity protection, climate science, disaster preparedness, campaign strategy and media training to leaders from 63 church institutions and in the process, built a network of support for these faith leaders in the US and around the world. As with all of our projects, we work in partnership with a wide array of organizations including A Rocha, American Scientific Affiliation, Blessed Tomorrow, Care of Creation, Christianity Today, Climate Nexus, EcoAmerica, Evangelical Environmental Network, the Fetzer Institute, Green the Church, Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network, Ocean Conservancy, and the World Wildlife Fund.

In 2021, Loka co-hosted the Sacred Wisdom Sacred Earth convening with the International Mayan League. With close to 1,000 registered participants, the 3-day online convening focused on 5 themes: Food, Water, Medicine, Sovereignty and Spirit and was entirely Indigenous-led, with the goal of sharing Indigenous ecological and spiritual knowledge as means of sustenance for all Indigenous peoples around the world. In 2022, guided by our Indigenous Advisory Council, Loka pledged to executive produce a documentary that focuses on Indigenous resilience in the Great Lakes area. At this crucial time in our Earth’s history, we believe that Indigenous wisdom holds the wisdom needed to shift our way of being and living in relation to the Earth and to address the environmental and climate crisis. The film shows us how to listen to and learn from elders and knowledge holders on how to center our relationship with Mother Earth as the most important aspect of building kinship and reciprocity in our lives and our movements.

Khoryug is an eco-monastic association in the Himalayas working on environmental and climate issues under the auspices of His Holiness the 17th Karmapa. The organization consists of over 50 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries ranging from Ladakh in northwest India to Ura in Bhutan. It was established in 2009 with coordination by Dekila Chungyalpa and technical assitance from her former colleagues at WWF, and has continued to flourish over the last 15 years. Since 2015, Khoryug has focused on disaster preparedness and has 300+ trained monks and nuns in disaster response and first aid. During the COVID pandemic, Loka was able to create, translate, and distribute COVID guidelines to all the Khoryug monasteries and nunneries, helping protect their communities from the dangers of the pandemic. Khoryug stands for Rangjung Khoryug Sunkyob Tsokpa, Environmntal Protection Organization in Tibetan. Its main coordinating monastic bodies are: Bokar Ngedon Chokhor Ling Monastery in India and Pullahari Monastery in Nepal.