The Collaborative of Native Nations for Climate Transformation and Stewardship (CNNCTS) celebrates one year of collaboration, achievement, and learning. Read about the community-led change fostered by 18 partners in our first year as CNNCTS on today’s blog.
The Collaborative of Native Nations for Climate Transformation and Stewardship (CNNCTS) is pursuing a community-centered approach that leverages local networks and project successes of eighteen partners across southern California. Our goal is to create a scalable model of Indigenous-led land stewardship that facilitates climate resilience and adaptation—supporting coastal resilience, cultural and prescribed fire, climate-informed restoration, and land rematriation efforts that center community priorities and relationships with the land.
The program was officially launched in 2023, building on many years of partnerships and long-standing relationships. CNNCTS is co-led by San Diego State University and the Climate Science Alliance, with input from participants in the Tribal Working Group and numerous other partners. Our network includes four Tribal governments, four universities, seven Tribal-serving non-profit organizations, and three federal agencies. Meet the network here.
In September, we celebrated one year of our collaborative work together. In this time, we were able to connect with and support nearly 8,800 people through our network and provide $225,000 in funds to communities. It was a year that allowed us to engage and honor Indigenous lands, participating in more than 60 events.
CNNCTS operates through six major areas that focus on supporting Indigenous-led stewardship. During this year, we achieved the following:
15 Cross-enrollment courses at CA Universities and co-produced research
Through our efforts to “Advance science-informed climate action”, we promoted knowledge sharing and development of interdisciplinary collaboration coupled with the co-production of academic research that incorporated additional research components to the Resilient Restoration project.
In Spring of this year, CNNCTS university partners invited students to explore climate action through a California Indian perspective: “Available to students across participating campuses, our listing of courses open to students from other universities for cross-enrollment integrate Indigenous perspectives through expert guest speakers, curated readings, and hands-on activities.” Learn more.
11 Research Collaborations
As part of our work to “Translate Knowledges into Practice", a data visualization and access portal is in development by CNNCTS partners to foster community networking and information sharing. In addition, CNNCTS partners continue to collaborate on hands-on experiential learning opportunities for students and community members through Stewardship Living Labs.
In November of 2023, participants of the 2023 Santa Barbara TREX training developed their firefighting skills on the UC Santa Barbara Sedgwick Reserve for eight days. “This TREX, short for Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges, was held to build capacity for community-based burning by promoting ecological health while meeting cultural, training, and wildfire mitigation goals.”
5 Community-led stewardship demonstration projects
To “Put adaptation into action”, CNNCTS has invested in large-scale demonstration projects established to support co-stewardship and intertribal collaboration. As part of these efforts, CNNCTS has supported community partners to serve as advisors and provided seed funds for pilot projects.
As part of their demonstration project, CNNCTS partners from the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians identified a goal to raise awareness and educate community members from their own Tribe as well as surrounding communities, Tribes, and regional organizations about the benefits of cultural burning. In May of this year, they hosted a cultural burn at the Tribe's Campground, and continue to guide research to monitor restoration progress through the Indigenous ways of knowing, observing, collaborating, and working towards for the benefit of the community. Learn more
12 Training opportunities in plant propagation, fire and fuels management & more
CNNCTS partners have worked to “Expand landscape stewardship pathways”, through a focused effort to coordinate and implement training opportunities to build capacity for economic and workforce development. Train-the-trainer programs and regional hubs have been developed to further scale up these opportunities with a special focus on coastal resilience and fire stewardship.
CNNCTS partners collaborated to provide a space to learn more about the web-based mapping tool ArcGIS Online in January of this year. This was an identified need for training in mapping tools that can help inform drought management, climate change modeling, and native plant restoration.Through this workshop, 32 community members (with a wait list of 40+) strengthened their tools by telling their story through data. Learn more.
6 Weeks of interactive lessons for Entrepreneurship Bootcamp participants
As the last of our five focus areas, “Support social entrepreneurship” aligns climate resilience with the development of Indigenous-led business through entrepreneurial training and continued evaluation of market opportunities to support the expansion and economic development for the Indigenous Fire, Forestry, and Fuels Crew.
Multiple members of the Tribal Working Group participated in the Entrepreneurship and Adversity Community Bootcamp for six weeks focused on growing and developing sustainable business ventures. “This event was hosted by our partners at the Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Studies, the SDSU Lavin Entrepreneurship Center, and the San Diego Chapter of SCORE—with support from CNNCTS’ social entrepreneurship efforts.” Learn more.
The second year of CNNCTS is underway, and the work of our partners and their community-led efforts are in full swing. Hear from them directly in our 5-part webinar series, Community Conversations, which includes lighting talks from partners on their programs, reserves, projects, and research. The series runs through January 2025—learn more here.
We want to extend a big thank you to everyone who has been part of this year, especially to our partners who have supported and worked to make CNNCTS a model of change and resilience and the University of California’s Climate Action Grant, which is funding our efforts.
Find the infographic below.
Learn more about the Collaborative for Native Nations for Climate Transformation and Stewardship (CNNCTS) at cnncts.org.