How Indigenous-led conservation can build a better Canada

In the face of rising temperatures and unprecedented rates of extinction, the world needs powerful and immediate solutions. Indigenous Nations within Canada are helping guide the way forward. Indigenous Guardians programs put the land management and tracking into the hands of trained community members, and proposed Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas will enable Canada to meet its goal of protecting 30% of land by 2030. Meanwhile, caring for lands is helping revitalize Indigenous languages and cultures and create greater health and wellbeing.

Valérie Courtois (left), the director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI), and Dahti Tsetso, the deputy director of ILI, have been involved in some of the biggest, most ambitious plans for sustaining lands in the country and have seen the transformative benefits firsthand. Linda Solomon Wood, editor-in-chief of National Observer hosted both leaders in a live, online conversation, May 26, 2022.