Introducing Jim Oldham:
I am very pleased to be starting full time as Equity Trust's executive director in January 2010. I feel privileged to have this opportunity to support people sharing ownership of land and other resources in ways that balance many needs: of individuals and their communities; of current and future generations; and of human society and the planet.
Let me tell you a little about myself. I come to Equity Trust after over a dozen years working in collaborations for environmental justice and sustainable development with low income, often excluded, communities in Latin America and the US. I am the founder and outgoing executive director of Las Lianas Resource Center, a non-profit organization that partners with indigenous communities in Ecuador on projects for sustainable agriculture, environmental protection and land rights. I also worked as the environmental justice coordinator for the Regional Environmental Council of Central Massachusetts, helping communities in Worcester create safer, healthier environments for their families.
In my capacity as director of Las Lianas, I built the organization from a US-based, one-man program to a small, but very successful, bi-national non-profit carrying out a range of projects in Ecuador. Perhaps most relevant to Equity Trust are Las Liana’s efforts helping indigenous nationalities gain title to almost 1000 square miles of ancestral lands while crafting new land ownership models. Las Lianas is also helping some 300 families develop native fish farming systems as a model for development that preserves the rainforest. I am now transferring management of Las Lianas to my Ecuadorian colleagues who have been instrumental in the growth and success of the organization's projects to protect the biological diversity of the Amazon region and the rights of the indigenous people who live there.
I am looking forward to working on economic justice issues here in the US, continuing and expanding Equity Trust's innovative work to transform the way land and other community resources are owned, used and preserved. Equity Trust's current economic justice work and its heritage are extremely meaningful to me. I know of no other national organization like it in the United States or abroad. In its pioneering work with farmers, land trusts and community groups, Equity Trust is changing the economic landscape. I am honored to carry on the work of two tremendous forces in the community land trust movement, Chuck Matthei and Ellie Kastanopolous, and I am fortunate to have the opportunity to expand on their vision of a new economy.
The relevance of this vision is daily more obvious as we face economic crises and environmental challenges. As people search for greater economic security, build local food movements and work to preserve their communities, Equity Trust provides invaluable tools. There are two great strengths of Equity Trust that I particularly admire and hope to build on. The first is the creativity in identifying opportunities for rethinking ownership models and creating the equitable and sustainable relationships our society needs. The second is the bringing together of so many different people—land owners, farmers, investors, donors, community members—in joint efforts to build sustainable futures. I look forward to joining the Equity Trust board and staff, and our many supporters and partners, in this essential work.
In Solidarity,
Jim Oldham