Shutterstock file photo of New York state.
A new partnership between ESF’s Center for Native Peoples and the Environment (CNPE) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) will serve as a bridge between traditional ecological knowledge and Western scientific approaches.
“Our partnership with The Nature Conservancy arises out of shared interests and common goals — to conserve cherished landscapes and biodiversity— by bringing together western conservation science and Indigenous knowledge systems,” said Dr. Robin Kimmerer ’75. Kimmerer is the director of the CNPE, a botanist, and an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is also the author of the bestselling book “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.”
The partnership includes an $800,000 grant from TNC and has three main components: new and strengthened relationships among TNC, CNPE and Indigenous Nations; advancement of land justice by increasing access for Indigenous peoples to lands in their own original territories; and
re-story-ation.
Re-story-ation involves co-developing a new narrative on conservancy preserves that restores Indigenous peoples’ engagement with their ancestral homelands and gives voices to their perspectives in interpretation, education and stewardship practices.
“With a grant-supported Ph.D. student, we will create a pilot project for TNC preserves in what is now called New York state, that could be a model for decolonizing approaches to conservation at a larger scale,” said Kimmerer.
“The partnership with The Nature Conservancy and ESF’s Center for Native Peoples and the Environment is transformational,” said Leah Tuck, major gifts officer. “The gift propels the important work Robin and her team have been working on for years at ESF. TNC’s gift demonstrates leadership and commitment to the work of re-story-ation and honoring traditional ecological knowledge.” The partnership grew out of a meeting that CNPE hosted in 2019 inviting TNC, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and land trust representatives to meet with Haudenosaunee environmental leaders. “We’re honored to partner with them in this important work,” said Kimmerer. “We see this as an opportunity for co-learning between the CNPE and TNC and Indigenous communities who are a critical partner in this work.”
“We are thrilled to embark on this transformative partnership,” said Bill Ulfelder, executive director of The Nature Conservancy in New York. “Robin
Kimmerer’s work teaches us about restoration and reciprocity and provides hope for a different way forward based on Indigenous relationships with the living world.”
In addition to land conservation, the partnership is designed to advance land justice. A 2019 UN report documented that indigenous-held lands worldwide have better conservation outcomes than public lands, due to indigenous stewardship practices and ethics.
“Much conservation philosophy in the United States is derived from a colonial perspective that separates land and people, and fails to recognize the importance of indigenous land care practices,” noted Kimmerer. “Native peoples were in fact brutally removed from their homelands to establish public conservation areas, in profound acts of injustice. We also recognize that every single acre of privately conserved land in the U.S. is on Indigenous homelands and the relationship between original people and these lands has been lost in colonization. This project recognizes and begins to address these historic injustices.”
Karen B. Moore is the interim director of ESF Office of Communications and Marketing.