From September 3rd to 7th, Local Futures organized the Planet Local Summit in Ladakh, India. This is a high desert mountain environment, whose local culture has adapted to dry conditions over centuries. This year, however, like other recent years here and across the Himalayan region, the climate crisis caused by global industrial capitalism hit home, bringing intense, destructive rains and unseasonable cold. The organizing and running of the Summit was seriously disrupted by this, but much worse of course were the effects on local agrarian economy, with many damaged and destroyed crops just at the time of harvest, further jeopardizing the region’s food self-reliance that has already been severely compromised by integration into the global economy. This crisis, and the system underlying and driving it, were in many ways an apt occurrence for the summit, where many facets of the polycrisis – climate crisis among them – were under discussion, alongside sharings of responses both around resistance to expansionist global extractivism-consumerism, and the plenitude of place-based, ecological alternatives being put into practice all over the world. In this regard, despite the grim realities surrounding us, it was a week of inspiration and energy, of coming together with people from 25 different countries, from India (including Ladakhis from numerous regions), Nepal, Myanmar, Vietnam, Japan, Germany, England, Brazil, Greece, France, and beyond. In the midst of Ladakh’s mountains and villages, we shared ideas, hope, and a deep sense of connection that felt both timeless and urgent. 



Participants at the Planet Local Summit, held on 3-7 September 2025 in Ladakh, India.

Photo crédit: https://planet-local-summit-ladakh-2025.localfutures.org/gallery/

A few highlights from the summit included:



• Field trips to four villages in a single day that offered participants a glimpse of village life, still deeply inspiring despite economic and social pressures. For newcomers and urban dwellers, the villages retain a captivating beauty, scale, and hospitality that has gone missing from so much of the modern industrial-commercial world; for those of who knew ‘old’ Ladakh, the changes wrought by ‘development’ – cement displacing adobe buildings, plastic waste bearing logos of multinational corporations, fallow fields for want of people due to outmigration for ‘education’ and jobs in the mainstream economy – were poignant reminders of what is at stake.
• Workshops and plenaries covering a plethora of issues from cross-cultural perspectives and exploring the common threads that tie them all together in relation to global capitalism, including: explorations of indigenous versus modern worldviews; land and water as sacred; the mental health crisis, rising technocracy and digital dystopia; hope and despair; water conservation, permaculture, natural building, agroecology and food sovereignty; alternative education in service of life; community and cooperative economies; local governance; and reconnecting and healing (with each other, with the more-than-human). Numerous Ladakh- specific sessions also took place: wildlife conservation and challenges of mass tourism; nurturing local food economies; and confronting and surviving the climate crisis. Every project was tied to a bigger vision: building resilient communities based in principles of interdependence, sufficiency and contentment, beauty and joy. (see the full program: (see the full program: https://planet-local-summit-ladakh-2025.localfutures.org/programme/summit-program/)
• GTAGlobal Tapestry of Alternatives Facilitation Team members Shrishtee Bajpai, Shail Shrestha, Ashish Kothari and Alex Jensen took part in and/or helped organize and facilitate a number of sessions at the summit on topics like: indigenous vs modern worldviews; local governance; localization examples in Asia; ecoversities; wildlife and tourism issues. On the final day, a plenary session, Movement building for systemic change featured Shrishtee and Ashish discussing GTA and Vikalp Sangam, among numerous other examples, along with Juan del Rio of GTA-endorser Ecolise, in conversation with Alex Jensen.
• Celebrating Ladakhi culture: Local foods and recipes enjoyed by participants and a festival of local culture by the Women’s Alliance of Ladakh, along with traditional and fusion-folk music and participatory dance, and engagement in local agrarian activities during and just after the summit.

Whether addressing ecological destruction and loss, unemployment, addiction, loneliness, or the widening gap between rich and poor, the sessions and ethos of the summit suggested that the solutions require deep, experiential knowledge and the regeneration of connection – tangible, in-person connection beyond the digital realm. As we witnessed again and again, despite a commercial leviathan eroding the planet and our well-being, people are turning toward collaboration, care and joy, choosing community over isolation.

Lamayuru Monastery, Leh district, Ladakh (Istock.com/Astalor)

Photo Crédit: https://planet-local-summit-ladakh-2025.localfutures.org/gallery/