President's View: Honoring Tribal Partnerships
Working together with Native 皇冠体育app官网平台n Tribes to conserve wildlife
- Collin O鈥橫ara President & CEO of the National Wildlife Federation
- Conservation
- Aug 01, 2021
A drumming ceremony marks the end of the 2018 Tribal Buffalo Conservation Summit in Colorado. NWF’s Tribal Partnerships Program collaborates with many Native 皇冠体育app官网平台n Tribes to help restore buffalo.
FOR GENERATIONS, INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES have wisely stewarded natural resources through deep ecological knowledge, culture and practice. The only way we’re going to overcome our unprecedented wildlife and climate challenges is through authentic partnerships with sovereign Tribes and Indigenous communities.
Since the 1980s, the National Wildlife Federation’s Tribal Partnerships Program has joined with Tribes in support of their efforts to reestablish treaty rights, advance conservation priorities, rectify environmental and economic injustices and address inequities and resource needs.
In partnership with the , , , and others, we’re supporting efforts to restore buffalo populations to their historic habitat, including joining the decades-long effort to return management of the to the (Coming Full Circle).
The Federation is also standing with sovereign Tribes in some of the most important natural resource battles in the country. The and are leading the charge to restore imperiled salmon runs of the Snake River. The are defending the sacred Chich’il Bildagoteel (Oak Flat) in Arizona. The , the , the and the (among others) are fighting to protect the Mackinac Straits from an oil spill that would devastate both Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. are advocating for their water rights in the drought-stricken Southwest, a seat at the table in how the Colorado River is managed and universal access to clean water given that nearly 50 percent of tribal members lack that access.
We’re also working with Tribes on Capitol Hill, from efforts to confirm Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland—the first Native 皇冠体育app官网平台n to serve in a presidential cabinet—to rectifying inequities that have excluded Tribes from most wildlife funding programs. Thanks to our partnership with the and other partners, Congress is on the verge of passing historic levels of funding for tribal wildlife conservation through both the Recovering 皇冠体育app官网平台’s Wildlife Act and the Tribal Wildlife Corridors Act. Tribal partnerships grounded in trust are essential to ensuring a more-equitable world teeming with wildlife. We hope you’ll join us in this important work.
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More from National Wildlife magazine and the National Wildlife Federation:
Bison: Bring Them Back »
NWF: Our Work »
Read Last Issue's President's View »
