- For at least the past 20 years, conservation has been wrestling with some of the darker aspects of its historical relationship with local communities. These issues gained increased notoriety in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing last year when the Black Lives Matter movement forced a public conversation around state violence and social injustice in the United States and beyond.
- There are signs that the conservation sector is now doing more than just paying lip service to these concerns: Indigenous peoples and local communities are being more actively engaged in decision-making; leadership and boards of conservation institutions are prioritizing diversity and inclusion; and discriminatory practices are increasingly being called out as unacceptable.
- Recognizing Indigenous rights as a gap in the philanthropic space in general, the San Francisco-based Christensen Fund recently reoriented its grantmaking approach and adopted a new mission: supporting the global Indigenous peoples’ movement “in its efforts to advance the rights and opportunities of stewards of biocultural diversity.”
- To deliver on this mission, last year Christensen hired Indigenous legal expert and advocate Carla Fredericks as its executive director. Fredericks, an enrolled citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota, spoke with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler during a February 2021 interview.
For at least the past 20 years, conservation has been wrestling with some of the darker aspects of its historical relationship with local communities: legacies of colonialism, institutional racism, lack recognition of Indigenous peoples’ rights, and abuses like forced evictions from traditional lands and extrajudicial killings. These issues gained increased notoriety in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing last year when the Black Lives Matter movement forced a public conversation around state violence and social injustice in the United States and beyond.
There are signs that the conservation sector is now doing more than just paying lip service to these concerns: Indigenous peoples and local communities are being more actively engaged in decision-making; leadership and boards of conservation institutions are prioritizing diversity and inclusion; and discriminatory practices are increasingly being called out as unacceptable. Issues like free prior informed consent (FPIC) are regularly part of conservation project planning, while conservation groups have taken to promoting local peoples’ land rights as a key component of the battle against climate change and the extinction crisis.
But reorienting conservation to put the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities at the center of strategy and decision-making won’t be easy. Recognizing Indigenous rights as a gap in the philanthropic space in general, the San Francisco-based Christensen Fund recently reoriented its grantmaking approach and adopted a new mission: supporting the global Indigenous peoples’ movement “in its efforts to advance the rights and opportunities of stewards of biocultural diversity.”
To deliver on this mission, last year Christensen hired Carla Fredericks as its executive director. Fredericks, an enrolled citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota, is an Indigenous rights lawyer and academic who has worked in a number of capacities and roles to “defend and elevate” Indigenous peoples’ rights. Her efforts have included authoring and co-authoring numerous academic papers on Indigenous rights; serving as counsel to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline; and establishing First Peoples Worldwide at the University of Colorado, a program that works to promote implementation of the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) across business and government. On assuming her role on Jan. 1, 2021, Fredericks became the first Native American to lead a private foundation with more than $300 million in assets.
While Christensen’s focus isn’t conservation per se, its work has significant implications for conservation, given that Indigenous peoples and local communities around the world steward land that account for 80% of terrestrial biodiversity and at least a sixth of carbon stored in tropical forests. Fredericks says the conservation sector still has a long way to go when it comes to recognizing Indigenous peoples’ rights, rather than just using Indigenous peoples as a mechanism to achieve conservation outcomes.
“I hope that conservation-focused work can really engage now in some deep thinking and make serious commitments to supporting Indigenous people purely for the sake of human rights,” she told Mongabay. “I’ve seen a few approaches that seem somewhat like they are trying to utilize the rights of Indigenous people to achieve conservation objectives. I really think this is a backwards approach.
“Though it is true that Indigenous peoples are the knowledge bearers of sustainable land practices and land stewardship, Indigenous peoples really need to be considered as rights bearers as opposed to stakeholders or something different. It’s only once we see that shift happen and we support Indigenous leadership in a way that is unequivocal that conservation can engage properly with these communities.”
Fredericks spoke about conservation and Indigenous peoples rights, protests and advocacy, the impact of COVID on native communities, and more during a February 2021 interview with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler.
Interview with Carla Fredericks
Mongabay: As a child you moved from Washington, D.C., to the Pine Ridge Reservation in northwestern North Dakota. What impact did that have on you and your awareness of your Indigenous heritage?
Carla Fredericks: I know how formative the experiences of childhood are. Living on the reservation was formative for me in a way that living off the reservation would have been as well. I think we need to remember that our children are our “sacred little ones.” They come into this world with pure and divine hearts and their experiences shape them forever. We need to ensure that we provide our children with experiences, knowledge, and empathy that will lead into the betterment of the world. That’s what Pine Ridge gave me.
Last summer, awareness of social justice issues surged in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing. This included greater recognition of the injustices against Indigenous peoples in the U.S. But there’s now a danger that support for the moment may lose momentum. How can interest and progress on these fronts be sustained so as to trigger lasting change?
I think it’s interesting how short our attention span is on issues that have persisted for centuries. I think the question is: why momentum is necessary for social change? It should really be a question of changing values. Are we a society that values justice for all people or a society that is ambivalent about human rights? Are we committed to righting the wrongs of the past or are we comfortable being doomed to repeat them.
I think there’s a lot of pressure on people that do social justice work to keep the attention of the greater population. That’s not a sustainable path to systems change.
In 2018, you co authored a case study that looked at the social and material costs related to the Dakota Access Pipeline project to highlight the business impacts of failing to account for the human rights of Indigenous peoples. Recently Mongabay covered a paper that found firms lost an average of $100 million in market cap after they were associated with the murder of an environmental defender. Do you think these arguments are starting to resonate with companies?
Unfortunately, bottom line risk is what companies tend to care about. It has a lot to do with the jurisprudence of the courts around shareholder primacy and how the courts construe the fiduciary responsibilities of boards of directors. So yes, the dollar for dollar bottom line is very significant to companies.
What we’re seeing emerge is more interesting, however. Some of the largest asset holders are beginning to look at risk from a different point of view that’s not only about capital but also about social and environmental harm. Larry Fink at Blackrock has really led in this well as recent statements from industry groups and CEOs on the purpose of corporations — to achieve sustainability as well as earnings.
2020 saw sustained, widespread protests against social injustice. Do you think the protests at Standing Rock provided any lessons for last summer’s activism?
Absolutely. One of the biggest lessons out of DAPL the importance of having the social movement be led by community and be grounded in community values. I think anytime you have a widespread protest situation it’s important to have a values based approach. In Indigenous communities those values have persisted for millennia. The respect for those values is critical to the success of the movement.
The conservation sector has historically taken a colonial approach to achieving its objectives, often ignoring or undermining Indigenous peoples’ rights. But over the past decade, there’s been rising emphasis on the role Indigenous peoples and local communities play in stewarding ecosystems and wildlife. What do you think was the impetus for this shift? And how can these gains be extended and ingrained in conservation practice?
Honestly, I think there was widespread outrage and attention about the unfortunate practices of the conservation sector and its impact on Indigenous peoples. Many reports were written by international bodies, as well as books, detailing the practices of the conservation BINGOs. So I think a wholesale shift was necessary for PR reasons.
I hope that conservation-focused work can really engage now in some deep thinking and make serious commitments to supporting Indigenous people purely for the sake of human rights. I’ve seen a few approaches that seem somewhat like they are trying to utilize the rights of Indigenous people to achieve conservation objectives. I really think this is a backwards approach. Though it is true that Indigenous peoples are the knowledge bearers of sustainable land practices and land stewardship, Indigenous peoples really need to be considered as rights bearers as opposed to stakeholders or something different. It’s only once we see that shift happen and we support Indigenous leadership in a way that is unequivocal that conservation can engage properly with these communities.
2020 brought devastating hardship from the pandemic and surge in violence against human rights and environmental defenders in many countries. How have the Indigenous communities with which you work been affected and how are they coping?
Recent studies have shown in harrowing detail the exponential risk Indigenous peoples face as human rights and environmental defenders and also as members of it marginalized communities. This past year, the dual impacts of COVID and violence against Indigenous defenders was devastating.
What we’ve seen that’s been very heartening is how determined Indigenous communities are to protect themselves and their members from violence and disease. We’ve seen Indigenous communities really step up in incredible ways to lead their communities through these crises. Communities have shown they will not leave their people behind or put them in peril.
Tribal leaders in the U.S. were very serious about closing their borders and now have been very serious about getting their population vaccinated. It’s really an example for other communities to follow, because if the tribes can do what they have with the limited resources that they have, others should be able to as well.
We also have lost many people to violence and COVID, and it shows that governments have an ongoing responsibility to protect Indigenous peoples from these intersecting harms.
What should the Biden administration do to advance Indigenous peoples’ interests and start to address historical wrongs?
It is always my hope that any presidential administration will honor its government to government relationship with this nation’s Indigenous peoples.
Last year the Christensen Fund approved a new grantmaking strategy. What are the key priorities for the foundation?
We have centered our entire strategy on upholding the rights of Indigenous peoples. Our focus is on protecting the lands, territories, resources, and governance of Indigenous peoples. The strategy really centers on helping Indigenous peoples achieve full self-determination, in a way that will allow them to enjoy a sense of well-being as communities.
What advice would you give for someone who wants to take an active role in supporting Indigenous peoples’ rights?
It’s really about supporting Indigenous self-determination and Indigenous-led solutions. It seems obvious but we have seen practices in the past that tend to center approaches favored by the person or entity providing financial support as opposed to centering the community itself and its own decision-making. Indigenous peoples know what the best solutions are for them. We need to look to them to understand what type of help they feel that they need and then step in to provide it.
What would you say to young people who are distressed about the current trajectory of the planet and society?
My mother used to say the one thing you can count on is change. Change is always possible. Do not be disheartened or discouraged, but know that your very being is the result of your ancestors forging ahead on your behalf. You, too, are vested with the same responsibility and the same ability to carry it out for future generations.
Header image: Modified image of a tract of forest surrounded by deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Disclosure: Mongabay received a grant from the Christensen Fund in 2019 for a project unrelated to the subject of this interview. The Christensen Fund does not have editorial influence on the stories Mongabay covers.
