Abstract: The Institute for Peoples, Territories, and Pedagogies for Peace (IPTP), founded in 2023, was developed as a space to aid community-based research, community-building, peace-building, and decolonial education within the framework of grassroots people's diplomacy. The presentation will explore organizing models involving the principles and processes of grassroots people's diplomacy that concern environmental governance and justice in the Americas and beyond. We will explore IPTP programming, relationships, and vision, as one would support the grassroots approach to strengthening local economies and projecting social transformation within the context of decolonizing pertaining to racial, gender, and environmental justice. Relation of the presentation to the theme Innovative Pathways to Thriving Communities: The presentation emphasizes people-driven solutions including a) to strengthen the self-governance of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, b) to foster intercultural dialogue and develop people-centered decolonial pedagogies c) to engage in people’s diplomacy increasing the visibility of decolonization, environmental, racial and gender justice for movements. Healing is a priority for grassroots movements, and partners of the IPTP: the body-territory nexus being central to self-determination and essential for the well-being of people and the planet.
