This Friday, the governor Gavin Newsom announced a $100 million budget proposal to strengthen partnerships with California's Native American tribes and achieve the state's ambitious climate and conservation goals.
The proposed funding would support tribal initiatives that advance shared climate and biodiversity goals, including traditional knowledge research, development, and implementation; workforce training, capacity building, and technical support; and tribal nature-based climate conservation programs, among others.
“Too often, California’s Native American communities are ignored and suffer many of the worst impacts of climate change. The California way is not to hide from our past, but to embrace it with a commitment to building on our values of inclusion and equity for all who call this state home,” Newsom said.
In 2020, the Governor called for the accelerated use of nature-based solutions to combat the climate crisis through Executive Order N-82-20.
The order called for a cohesive strategy to improve management of the state’s diverse landscapes to protect climate-vulnerable communities, safeguard biodiversity, achieve carbon neutrality, improve public health and safety, and expand economic opportunity.
Two major initiatives were also launched as part of this strategy: a major new conservation target and a first-ever strategy to expand climate-smart land management.
The state has thus committed to conserving 30 percent of state lands and coastal waters by 2030, becoming a leader in an international effort called “30X30.”
During public workshops for these initiatives, it was clear that California’s Native American tribes offered meaningful solutions and a willingness to partner with the state. In light of this, state agencies are finalizing a Climate Smart Natural and Working Lands Strategy that will identify the state’s priorities for managing our landscapes to meet California’s ambitious climate goals.
“We heard loud and clear in our consultations with more than 70 Native American tribes in California about the need to play a leadership role in restoration and conservation efforts that benefit tribal communities and honor their connections to lands and waters,” said California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot.
“Tribes also identified a need for capacity-building resources to engage more centrally in California’s climate and conservation efforts. This funding proposal can make that collaboration possible,” she added.
Under the Governor’s budget proposal, the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) would administer the new tribal funding commitment.
Newsom acknowledged that California’s Native peoples have lived interdependently and stewarded this environment since time immemorial, and that the state has a role in the violent disruption of that relationship.
“As we have heard in recent days, removing California’s Native people and practices from the places where they have lived and thrived since time immemorial has had far-reaching negative impacts, including many of the climate challenges we are currently experiencing,” said Tribal Councilor to the Governor Christina Snider.
“This proposal, which anticipates an informed and tribal-led process, is a step in the right direction to begin to honor what California’s Native peoples have been through and respectfully honor tribal communities as the first people of this place,” he stressed.
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