Just Strategies

There is a burgeoning movement that is building awareness and pushing back against current racist, consumerist, and extractive notions in the conservation movement. Based on research and informed by multiple case studies, we recommend the following five strategies moving forward for the conservation movement:

INDIGENOUS CONSERVATION PRACTICES

Project Drawdown cites indigenous land management as one of the most effective strategies for climate mitigation. For example, the surge of recent climate-induced wildfires in the West has shined a spotlight on the need to adopt indigenous practices of conservation. Controlled forest burning, a traditional conservation strategy of many indigenous peoples in the West, promotes forest regrowth and increases the resilience of forest ecosystems against destructive wildfires. The National Parks should adopt the sustainable, stewardship practices of indigenous communities that have protected these lands for centuries.

REPATRIATION OF LAND

Furthermore, after years of activism and voluntary cleanup of abandoned land, the Wiyot People were successful in convincing the City of Eureka, CA to repatriate an island back to the tribe. This recent local decision was so historically momentous for recognitional justice in conservation that the National Congress of American Indians calls it the United States’ first known voluntary municipal land return achieved without sale, lawsuit, or trade. Although repatriation of public lands is politically unfeasible at a national level, the Department of Interior should at least meaningfully incorporate indigenous stakeholders through procedural justice in the management of these public lands moving forward. 

A NEW PLAN FOR PUBLIC LANDS

Rather than allow conservation lands to be used for further fossil fuel extraction, the United States must ban all further fossil fuel leases. With the authority of the Antiquities Act, future presidents can restore protections to public lands and reinstate methane pollution rules to reduce harms to environmental health. In order to enforce these rules and ensure accountability, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and other agencies must be fully funded through the appropriation process. Moreover, by increasing funding for the National Park Service, the agency would also be able to reduce or even eliminate entrance fees for visitors so that all Americans regardless of income status can visit these sacred spaces; thus, achieving a key goal of the environmental justice movement.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

We recommend connecting the goals of conservation with local communities environmental justice plans and needs. The Valle de Oro Refuge outside of Albuquerque, NM is the first wildlife refuge in the country to have an environmental justice strategic plan that matches refuge goals with the goals of the Department of the Interior’s Environmental Justice Strategic Plan and the needs of the community. In doing so, the refuge includes people of color in the decision making processes, and creates a requirement that any environmental impacts are addressed. Part of this plan involves prioritizing environmental investment in the environmental justice movement. Amongst Big Green conservation groups there has been a historic lack of investment in environmental justice organizations. Many of these groups worked to normalize the term environmental justice, but have not received monetary investment in the movement. From 2007-2009, only 15 percent of environmental grant dollars were classified as benefiting marginalized communities, and only 11 percent were classified as advancing “social justice” strategies.” Diversifying environmental investment has the potential to change the traditional “meaning of environmental investment” and co-fundraise respectfully.

GREEN NEW DEAL

Finally, it is critical that the conservation movement promotes the passage of Green New Deal-inspired legislation at the federal, state, and local levels. Although the Green New Deal does not explicitly address conservation, it does call for the repatriation of indigenous lands and for the protection of public lands from fossil fuel extraction. Therefore, by supporting the Green New Deal, one is inherently supporting conservation justice and a more just future.