What We Do/ Living Earth Campaign
Living Earth Campaign
The Living Earth Campaign (LIVE) is a call to live in peace and harmony with all forms of life, and to respect the Earth as a living being of which we are an inseparable part. It invites us to reflect on what it means to live well—without harming ourselves, our communities, or our shared home.
LIVE is rooted in local, hands-on actions that make sense for the ecosystems and communities where they take place. These actions include, and are not limited to:
– Restoring soil health
– Protecting biodiversity
– Practicing natural gardening
– Rejecting pesticide use
– Promoting natural building techniques
This campaign is not about “saving the planet”—because the planet will continue to exist, with or without us. What we can do is protect the natural environment, honour the ecosystems that sustain life, and avoid contaminating the waters, the soil, the air—recognising these as the veins and breath of the Earth. LIVE is about saving ourselves and the co-inhabitants we share this world with, by choosing ways of living that are healthy, respectful, and non-destructive.
At its heart, LIVE is a reminder that we are not separate from nature—we are nature. For many, this is an intuitive truth; for others who have been disconnected by systems of consumption and control, LIVE is an invitation to remember, to reawaken, and to act.
LIVE reflects the core mission of IVS: working for peace through meaningful action. Environmental work, education, and awareness-raising are not separate from peace—they are peace in practice. All of our activities focus on inclusion, mutual respect, and non-violence, while promoting grassroots initiatives that place communities at the centre.
The work of LIVE falls into three interconnected categories:
Hands on Actions
Tangible, local interventions rooted in ecological and cultural knowledge:
- Soil regeneration, reforestation, clean-up actions
- Permaculture and natural gardening
- Sustainable construction and eco-building
- Seed saving and water preservation
Awareness Raising and Education
Learning spaces that nurture ecological consciousness and collective reflection:
- Trainings, workshops, and educational campaigns
- Youth empowerment and leadership development
- Storytelling, art, and traditional knowledge sharing
Advocacy and Visibility
Bringing grassroots voices to the forefront and influencing broader change:
- Public campaigns aligned with global goals (e.g. UN Decades)
- Policy recommendations and movement-building
- Creative actions that make invisible work visible
LIVE is not just a campaign. It is a movement of remembrance and reconnection—a living expression of peace, rooted in the Earth, carried forward by the hands and hearts of those who care.
LIVE and the IVS Climate Advocacy Agenda
The Living Earth Campaign is at the heart of CCIVS’s climate advocacy. It embodies Advocacy Ask #3 of the IVS Movement: Climate Action through International Voluntary Service. LIVE supports the call for increased recognition and funding of IVS as a powerful force for community-led climate resilience and environmental justice.
Through LIVE, we promote:
– Regenerative agriculture and ecosystem restoration
– Sustainable water management and biodiversity conservation
– Community-led actions that restore polluted areas, replant forests, and support nature-based solutions
– Awareness campaigns and education that reconnect people to their role in the web of life
LIVE aligns with global frameworks such as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
To learn more about our climate advocacy visit: https://ccivs.org/advocacy
The CCIVS Vision and Living Earth
The CCIVS vision defined in the Strategic Plan for 2022-27 recognises that the Sustainable Development Goals are a good framework to show how International Voluntary Service contributes to our planet, however CCIVS adopts a more radical and holistic approach that acknowledges and integrates our interdependent existence, based on a peaceful, cohabitation model with other species and within the planet’s limits.
Our members, projects and activities stretch across the entire globe, uniting people of all ages and backgrounds. IVS projects and activities are a powerful tool to support local communities worldwide, and allow the reallocation of resources and capacities, they support the social, cultural, economic and ecological transition that is needed to build a regenerative and reconciliatory world that promotes a circular-inclusive economic model based on global, social and climate justice.
The CCIVS Strategic Plan 2022-27
From the CCIVS Strategic Plan 2022-2027 the following issues were defined by the members as important for the CCIVS to work on in the next period.
The Living Earth Campaign is a platform where CCIVS can ensure that the grassroots work of the members is shared and promoted. Through the campaign we seek to raise awareness, to advocate, to educate and to implement practical work on a grassroots level. We are committed to ensuring that there is a space for debate, and for critical thinking that all sides of an argument can be discussed without fear of judgment or classification.
Projects
The Living Earth campaign (LIVE), is the culmination of CCIVS work on Peace and the Environment, it seeks to focus on what it means to live a peaceful and harmonious existence on Earth and respect towards the Earth as a living being.
Act Now
Living Earth Volunteers
There are people all around the world trying to save and restore ecosystems and traditional ways of life, working tirelessly for the environment, for the planet, for all species day to day. As IVS organisations we hope that more can join us to work together to build a future which prioritises a healthy planet, free of pollution, environmental destruction and the unchecked exploitation of resources.
If you would like to join the Living Earth Campaign as a Living Earth Volunteer please contact one of our members in the country where you are based and they can provide you with the information you need to join one of thousands of projects worldwide working on issues related to peace and the environment.
