About Alliance for the Earth

Founded in 1989, by Dr William Hugh Wheir, Alliance for the Earth is a nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which began its organizational life as Animal Alliance. For nearly two decades, Animal Alliance was dedicated to reducing animal suffering and to the protection of endangered species. Through projects on native lands and in indigenous communities around the world, we came to the realization over time that we needed to expand our vision to include all beings and the entire planet in our efforts to restore balance.

Our work was greatly furthered in 1990 when a 106-year-old Tibetan lama, living in a Himalayan cave in Nepal, gave us a Buddhist practice to bring healing and protection to the Earth by ceremonially filling sacred earth treasure vases with prayers and offerings and burying them all around the world in places of need.

Twenty years of international fieldwork on behalf of animals and indigenous communities along with more than twenty years of dharma practice dedicated to the healing and protection of the Earth led us to change the name of our organization to Alliance for the Earth in 2008.

Alliance for the Earth has grown from a small, action-oriented, grassroots organization into a web of prayer and action that is giving ancient wisdom a voice in the world and helping to build a global movement for restoration and renewal.

Our Mission

Today, Alliance for the Earth supports and facilitates the emergence of a vibrant, global community committed to bringing healing, protection and renewal to the Earth and all beings. We accomplish our mission through visionary programs that fuse indigenous wisdom and ancient ceremonial practices with contemporary communication technology. This fusion engages and empowers individuals and communities around the world to awaken and transform our destructiveness into actions that honor and sustain life.