Inclusive Conservation: Improving Collaboration with Tribes in the United States

Abstract

Collaborative landscape-scale conservation is a multi-jurisdictional approach that embraces community collaboration and ecosystem-scale practices. With over 95 million acres of land under Tribal management in the United States, strengthening collaboration with Tribes will broaden the field of landscape conservation and shift outcomes. Therefore, we ask:

What practices can non-Tribal organizations adopt to better collaborate with Tribes How can Tribal priorities shape a landscape-scale conservation prioritization scheme?

Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, we identify key barriers to collaborating with Tribes and recommend appropriate strategies and tools to overcome them. Additionally, through a case study of a Tribal climate adaptation plan using geospatial analysis, we find that geospatial tools can be used to center Tribal priorities in conservation planning.