Justice, Equtiy, & INclusion
For too long many of us in conservation have failed in our responsibility to look squarely at historical inequities and frame our work in a way that recognizes these injustices.
As Heart of the Rockies Initiative works to ensure connected habitat and working lands for people and wildlife, we do so with an understanding that conservation is inextricably linked with justice and equity. In order to make a difference in the field of conservation, we must continually explore and address our own individual biases and improve organizational culture.
We also acknowledge that individual awareness and internal cultural change, alone, have a limited impact. We see a need to also take concrete actions to ensure our programs are truly inclusive and use our region-wide sphere of influence to make a positive difference for oppressed and marginalized groups in the conservation community.
OUR INITIATIVE seeks to serve as a CONVENING CATALYST BETWEEN TRIBes And OUR PARTNER LAND TRUSTS
We are currently finalizing a document that communicates a deliberate justice, equity, and inclusion (JEI) plan that supports our mission and addresses our organizational blindspots.
20th Anniversary Celebration
We celebrated Heart of the Rockies 20th anniversary in October 2022. We celebrated the incredible conservation and community work of our many land trust members, landowners, partners, and supporters. Below are the opening remarks (slightly edited for clarity) for the celebration, which were given by Bray Beltrán.
As we all know, we sit on Indigenous lands. These lands have been occupied and managed by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. Indigenous peoples ceded some of the land but maintained the right to access the landscape to fish, hunt, gather, and hold ceremony. The treaties were broken by the US government, and as the West was settled and fences were put in place,Indigenous people were not allowed access to lands they have the right to.
We at Heart of the Rockies Initiative see great opportunity within the private land protection movement to contribute to restoring the rights on the land to Indigenous peoples. Our movement has the opportunity to ask private landowners to restore access in perpetuity every time we work on a conservation easement. It is not easy work, but it is work centered on justice. We celebrated 20 years of a dream for collaborative conservation that only came true through our partners and supporters’ work and dedication. We invite you to join us for the next 20 years with a dream to make private land protection a place where history is acknowledged and where we contribute to Indigenous rights restoration through the same work and dedication that has gotten us this far.”
