For millennia, the Maya people of Guatemala have been practising a unique agricultural system that fuses sustainability, climate resilience and environmental preservation. Based on the interconnections between plants and the surrounding elements, the “milpa” system combines nature with various managed crops such as corn, squash and beans (pictured above).

Rather than extracting everything from the land, the milpa approach focuses on the long-term benefits of sustainable land management. The United Nations recently included it in a on eight Indigenous food systems that can help the world stem the worst effects of climate change and achieve the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

This renewed recognition of ancient agricultural techniques is part of a broader movement by the Indigenous Maya people to reclaim their past and find their place in modern Guatemala. This revival also includes the promotion of traditional arts, such as basket-weaving, seen here carried out by 61-year-old Valeriano LĂłpez MĂ©ndez from the Suchiquer community (pictured above), traditional Mayan clothing (shown below) and spiritual practices and languages.

One of the bedrocks of the ancient Maya civilisation, Lake Atitlán (pictured below), has become a central fixture of this new trend. In these lakeside communities, the past and the present blend into a way of life that preserves and promotes all aspects of their civilisation.

IN 2016, Sikkim in India became the world’s first fully organic state, with the aim of preserving the local environment, protecting its fragile ecosystems and rich biodiversity, and ensuring a healthier life for its people. All 760 square kilometres of farmland in this former independent kingdom, which is nestled between Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, are certified organic, with a ban on importing or using chemical inputs.

Sikkim’s model – based on interconnection, rather than competition, between humans and nature – could lead the way towards a more sustainable future, as climate change forces the world to redefine its agricultural priorities.

, some early benefits of the organic revolution have been an increase in the population of bees and other wildlife and the rejuvenation of Sikkim’s shallow and arid soil.

The change has also led to a spike in tourism in this inaccessible land of high peaks and pristine forests, interspersed with Hindu temples, remote Buddhist monasteries and sacred lakes.

The photos show (from top): the kitchen of a family house in Yuksom, where all vegetables grown in the garden are organic; farmers separating hulls from rice in a paddy field on the outskirts of Gangtok; Buddhist monks in the courtyard of the Tsuklakhang Royal Monastery, one of the oldest monasteries in Sikkim; an orchid greenhouse at the Hidden Forest Retreat in Gangtok; an organic field surrounding a traditional house in the village of Tingvong; and tea pickers at the government-owned Temi Tea Estate, an organic plantation (pictured below).