Tribal consultation and collaborative governance: environmental and cultural justice through the lens of the National Environmental Policy Act (1969) and the National Historic Preservation Act (1966)

Presented at the Environmental justice in the Anthropocene symposium held on April 24-25, 2017 at the Lory Student Center, Colorado State University, Fort Collins Colorado. This symposium aims to bring together academics (faculty and graduate students), independent researchers, community and movement activists, and regulatory and policy practitioners from across disciplines, research areas, perspectives, and different countries. Our overarching goal is to build on several decades of EJ research and practice to address the seemingly intractable environmental and ecological problems of this unfolding era. How can we explore EJ amongst humans and between nature and humans, within and across generations, in an age when humans dominate the landscape? How can we better understand collective human dominance without obscuring continuing power differentials and inequities within and between human societies? What institutional and governance innovations can we adopt to address existing challenges and to promote just transitions and futures

Supporting Effective and Just Responses to Climate Change Through Policy Analysis, Cumulative Impact Assessments, and a Conservation Initiative Assessment

The first element of my portfolio discusses vulnerable populations in China who are facing climate change and highlights the need to change top-down systems, so impacted populations will be treated fairly when severe circumstances affect their lifeways. It is critically important to identify cases and causes of environmental justice that result in populations experiencing unjust outcomes. My academic component approaches a critical policy analysis that looks at the disparate outcomes of a migration policy that is being used to monopolize land in the guise of addressing climate change impacts and poverty. My analysis jumps into three cases where ecological migration policy is used in Western China. I critique it while looking at the ecological migration policy through an environmental justice and human rights lens, highlighting the importance of traditional lifeways and their role in keeping landscapes climate resilient. The second element focuses on collaborative research on Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) development in the United States, specifically the Gulf Coast, being a significant threat to climate change. Surprisingly, there have been few comprehensive studies on cumulative impacts on LNG facilities. However, cumulative impact analysis and climate justice analysis are ways to link severe environmental and climate injustices that LNG industries bring to natural and human communities, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities and the environments they rely on. Lastly, my third element encompasses a process assessment of conservation initiatives incorporating climate strategies in management plans. Conservation organizations and partnerships have only just begun to implement climate change strategies, addressing large landscapes that have been impacted by climate impacts for decades. As climate change persists, many landscape conservation initiatives of varying scales are seeing a great need to learn, implement, and share diverse climate strategies. Through interviews with conservation leaders and professionals, I gathered information that contributed to a working paper that aid conservationists around the nation and helps prioritize implementing climate work in daily conservation practices. These three components share a focus on climate change and environmental justice, focusing on understanding each case and trying to bridge solutions.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/grad_portfolios/1327/thumbnail.jp