This week, representatives of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe and the Pit River Nation used the 16th United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity, or CBD, in Cali, Columbia to promote the creation of the Kw’tsán National Monumentthe Chuckwalla National Monumentand the Sáttítla National Monument. The proposed move would protect about 1 million acres in California from extractive industries such as mining, oil and gas. With the US presidential election less than two weeks away, California tribes are pushing the Biden administration to designate these three national monuments before a new, possibly unfriendly or disinterested administration takes office.
Lena Ortega of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian tribe in the southern tip of California said that in the proposed Kw’tsán National Monument, animals such as bighorn sheep and desert tortoises live among the Ocotilloa cane-like semi-succulent, as well sand fooda fleshy parasitic plant that grows nowhere else.
“The theme for this year is ‘Peace with Nature,'” she said of the CBD meeting. “Well, we have always been at peace with nature. We are one with the land and one cannot be separated from the other and still be healthy.”
Tribes are better off protect biodiversity because of the long relationships they have on the land. This year, from the online research journal One Earth, researchers found when indigenous people and local communities were meaningfully brought in, and not simply treated as stakeholders, ecological goals had more favorable outcomes. Brazil gave about 800 square miles back to indigenous peoples in the Amazon and the government also prohibited non-indigenous people from participating in economic activities within these lands. Brazil has continued to weaken environmental protection which contributes to the continued deforestation of the land, but this is happening alongside indigenous sustainable hunting and gathering practices which have also been shown to be effective for conservation purposes.
“Landback is the ultimate goal,” Ortega said, “but it’s a first step.”
If approved, the three national monuments would contribute to the state of California’s 30×30 biodiversity goals – part of an international effort to protect 30 percent of inland and coastal waters by 2030. Part of that strategy is to ask governments to create national monuments. And while 30×30 goals signal that they want to hold the world accountable, indigenous peoples around the world point out that in many cases they have been violently removed from their lands, have had resources seized and been excluded from decision-making. The Biden administration has indicated an interest in addressing this history—hiring the first Native Cabinet secretary, Deb Haaland, and encouraging federal departments to respect tribal sovereignty are a few examples. These new national monuments will help the US reach its 30×30 goal by listening to tribes.
National monuments are created under the Antiquities Act of 1906 and allow presidents to unilaterally create protected areas on federal public lands. Tribes have used this power to protect important historic and sacred sites for decades, and just this year, in California, the Biden administration has about 14,000 acres of land at the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument and 100,000 acres to the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.
Tribes in relation to lands and waters protected under a national monument may a co-steward agreement with the federal government to continue to practice traditional ecological knowledge to protect their homelands: agreements between tribal nations and federal authorities that outline how parties will conserve public lands and resources. However, federal authorities have the final say.
While protecting land through the establishment of national monuments is a tool that tribes can use, it is not foolproof. In Utah, the Hopi, Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute, Diné and Ute form the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, the entity that lobbied for Bears Ears National Monument. In 2016, President Obama established it, but a year later President Trump cut it by 85 percent, leaving the area open to extractive industries.
In 2021, Biden reestablished the monument and the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service formalized management responsibilities to co-manage the land using traditional indigenous knowledge—sets of unique, culturally informed information about how to best manage the land with others. to manage. tribes.
A report from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, detailing international data over three decades, indicates that having indigenous peoples as stewards of the land keeps forests healthy, helping to mitigate climate change. This intimate knowledge of ecology and local governance – often extending beyond written history – leads to decisions such as planting more trees and stopping deforestation.
Brandi McDaniels is a member of the Pit River Tribe in Northern California, and spoke at CBD about the Sáttítla National Monument Campaign. The proposed national monument would span the Shasta-Trinity, Klamath and Modoc National Forests. Around two dozen geothermal development projects leased on these lands, and McDaniels hopes to protect the area from further development.
“These lands were taken from our tribes,” she said. “They are mismanaged.”
This year CBD is focused on money and aims to “support resource mobilization and alignment of financial flows” to protect the world’s limited biodiversity. In 2019, experts found that the planet needs round $700 billion to protect the world’s forests, plains and wildlife. Conservation efforts are primarily led by non-natives, and only from 2022 17 percent of funding goes to indigenous peoples.
