Escudilla returns to Botswana this July for the Botswana Community Conservation Initiative. Since October, Escudilla, with our partners Wild Entrust and The Pew Charitable Trusts, has been exploring how to support inclusive and durable conservation. This work aims to provide long-term support for country-wide conservation efforts in partnership with communities, regional NGOs, and the government. Escudiila’s efforts are supported by the Sweetgrass Foundation and Natural Selection Conservation Trust.

This initiative proposes establishing the Mogollon Rim Trail under the National Trail System, managed through inter-tribal cooperative agreements, to foster tribal economic and cultural integrity. Building on the trail establishment, the initiative envisions creating an inter-tribal conservation area by braiding existing and new conservation designations. A Project Finance underpins this approach for Permanence strategy designed to secure the necessary policies and institutional arrangements while ensuring effective and long-lasting funding.

Where people and animals travel, a place to hunt. Through a combination of scientific research and Indigenous knowledge, the Aklavik leadership have strived to protect these lands, while also preserving their rich Inuvialuit culture. The recent signing of the Aullaviat/Anguniarvik Traditional Conservation Area Agreement formalizes protection and provides resources for the Inuvialuit to sustain their cultural livelihoods through conservation management activities.

Read Narwal article.

Escudilla principal Dennis Sizemore, working with the Wildlife Management Advisory Council (North Slope), has assisted with this effort since 2013.

In April, we attended the 20th Anniversary of the T’akhu  Tlèn Conservancy. The Conservancy is dedicated to ensuring the traditional territory of the Taku River Tlingit Nation remains a landscape where the needs of the Taku River Tlingit Nation people are satisfied in harmony with the continued long-term viability of its native plants, fish, wildlife, and natural ecosystems. The lands of the Taku River Tlingit encompass the Taku and Whiting Rivers, and the headwaters of the Yukon River. The 20-year report is available at this link.

Escudilla’s Joaquín Lopez Huertas passed his Qualifying/Comprehensive Exam in the Ph.D. program in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning after defending his project "Planning in Re-existence: Decolonial Cracks and Indigenous Futurities." Joaquin also presented his research at the "Indigenous Planning and Well-Being" session at the 25th Annual American Indian Studies Association Conference at The University of New Mexico.