Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements Grant

Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements Grant is sponsored by First Nations Development Institute. This grant, part of the Stewarding Native Lands Program, focuses on advancing tribal conservation easements. First Nations Development Institute hosts informational Q&A webinars for interested applicants to provide details on goals, eligibility, and requirements.

Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements | First Nations Development Institute Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements Conservation easements are well-established and a common tool in the United States to protect conservation values on private lands, yet these structures are not sufficiently designed to protect Tribal Sovereignty and interests tied to land.

Conservation easements need to be reimagined to better align with Tribal Sovereignty, values, and priorities. First Nations’ Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements project is supporting tribal acquisitions of conservation easements, ensuring easements preserve tribal values and respect Tribal Sovereignty, and creating conservation financing that will provide for long-term protection and monitoring of tribal homelands.

In addition, creating conservation easement equivalents to uphold Tribal Sovereignty could result in similar investments for the protection and stewardship of tribal trust lands – options currently only available to private fee landowners.

This pilot project will engage Tribes, experts in Native American law, and conservation easement financing experts to identify methods and best practices for realigning conservation easements to respect Tribal Sovereignty and values.

As part of the project, First Nations will provide grants, legal technical assistance, trainings, and networking opportunities to six Tribes pursuing a conservation easement on private lands or conservation equivalent on trust lands. The purpose is to ensure pathways exist for Tribes to protect their tribal homelands, cultural resources, lifeways, and traditions.

Conservation easements are typically perpetual and recorded as deed restrictions, which transfer to all future property owners. Conservation easements are a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and an eligible entity that restrict activities to protect the land’s conservation values.

Eligibility to hold conservation easements is defined by state code, which typically is limited to government entities (that include tribal governments) and nonprofit organizations with a conservation or historic preservation purpose. C onservation easements are used to protect a variety of conservation values, including wildlife habitat, open space, scenic values, agriculture uses, and historic preservation.

Each easement is tailored to a property, based on landowner interest and the conservation easement holder’s policies and purposes. Conservation Easements Webinar Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of Stewarts Point Rancheria Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements This project will support Kashia Band of Pomo Indians to pursue a conservation easement that will enable access to and protection of tribal cultural resources.

This easement will enable the Tribe to access a site that they haven't been able to access for over 30 years.

Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements This project supports the planning, reimagining, and implementation of conservation easements to perpetually protect the culturally significant buffalo habitat within and adjacent to the Wind River Indian Reservation, while strengthening land sovereignty for the respective tribal communities.

Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements This project supports Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians (BVBMI) to enact a cultural conservation easement on a 6,500-acre portion of their ancestral land. BVBMI plans to use a cultural conservation easement to strengthen connection and access to land and strengthen community.

Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements This project supports the Rappahannock Tribe in developing a conservation easement template that respects Tribal Sovereignty and encourages tribes to negotiate when using an easement for land back. This template supports the rematriation of 200 acres of tribal land bordering Fones Cliffs.

Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements This project supports the use of conservation easements to permanently protect the subsistence and conservation values of approximately 80,000 acres owned by Igiugig Native Corporation. The acres identified for protection are of both subsistence and cultural significance to the tribe.

Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements This project supports Molokai Heritage Trust in implementing an easement on newly acquired coastal lands of significant value to the Hawaiian community in order to permanently protect land while codifying and upholding existing spiritual, cultural, and subsistence practices.

Hui Malama i ke Ala Ulili Advancing Tribal Conservation Easements This funding supports the purchase of essential equipment, supplies for logging and forest monitoring operations. Activities integrate modern tools with traditional stewardship values, ensuring environmental and cultural sustainability to support the Harvest to Home initiative.

From July 1 to August 31, 2026, all donations will go toward programs and projects that invest in Native youth and their families, or to our Native Youth and Culture Fund.