Passing RAWA ‘an important step’ for Native communities

“While tribal nations have deep cultural knowledge of how to manage wildlife on our lands, we do not have anywhere near the money we need to do so,” writes Gloria Tom, director of the Navajo Nation’s Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In an opinion piece appearing in the New York Times, Tom calls for the Senate to pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, an important piece of legislation that would provide $1.3 billion a year to states and territories to protect at-risk species and guarantee funding for Tribal wildlife management.

Tom estimates the Navajo Nation receives just 20 cents an acre to manage wildlife on its massive landscape.

“Passing the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would be an important step in tackling the disparity resulting from more than a century of inequitable funding to Native communities for wildlife conservation and in charting a new course of engagement with Native peoples,” Tom writes.

Read more from the New York Times.