Environmental Development Services
Background: Environmental Development Services is a program of Indian Dispute Resolution Services, Inc., a national, Native-controlled non-profit corporation based in Sacramento, California. IDRS has become highly instrumental in conflicts involving tribes and land management and environmental protection issues. In order to offer a more focused approach and collaboratively address growing concerns, IDRS Inc created a national demonstration project that has since evolved into a new program–Environmental Development Services. Environmental Development Services is leading IDRS, Inc.’s efforts in forest restoration, economic development, community sustainability in the Pacific Northwest, the Sierra Nevada and the Southwest.
Tribes today are increasingly concerned about the health and protection of natural and cultural resources on their reservation lands (e.g. wildlife, water, fisheries, plant life, timber, archeological artifacts, sacred sites). Tribes also want to protect these kinds of resources as well as exercise their retained rights to engage in hunting, fishing, gathering and cultural activities on their ancestral lands. In addition, tribes are interested in creating employment and income generation opportunities for their members by implementing sustainable natural resource development such as forest restoration on both reservation and ancestral lands.
In the West, most tribal ancestral lands are managed by federal land management agencies (e.g., FS, BLM, BOR, NPS). These agencies have a “trust responsibility” to protect tribal rights, resources, and interests. There is a growing need for tribes to be able to establish cooperative and effective working relationships as well as build on existing relationships in order to protect and promote their rights and interests with federal land management agencies.
In 2005, IDRS launched a major demonstration project that simultaneously addressed tribes’ interests in environmental resources protection, community economic development and sustainability. The initiative grew into the Environmental Development Services with areas of focus in the Pacific Northwest, the Sierra Nevada in California and the Southwest.
Our Operating Principles:
1. Tribal participation improves forest management because Tribes bring traditional and contemporary management skills.
2. Forest related businesses are needed to sustain tribal involvement in current and former tribal forests.
3. Tribes have relevant traditional knowledge and culturally appropriate approaches needed to address climate change through green enterprises.
Project Partners and Sites: We are working with the Klamath Tribes in southeastern Oregon on training a fuels reduction team and developing forest-based businesses. In the Southwest, we are working within the Colorado Plateau with the Ramah Navajo on TFPA, biomass conversion/alternative energy, forest-based enterprises, fuels reduction and biomass. We are also working within the Plateau with the White Mountain Apache on TFPA, fuels reduction, nursery, carbon sequestration.
In the Sierra Nevada of California, we are working with the Tuolumne Me-Wuk Tribe on TFPA, the native plant nursery and fuels reduction training. We are also working with Tribes to address tribal rights and interests in the FS’ land management planning rule and plan revisions.
The projects within the Environmental Development Services have received financial support from the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the Christensen Fund and the Resources Legacy Fund.
For further information regarding Environmental Development Services, please contact:
Steven Haberfeld, (916) 482-5800.