North America

Nia Tero works with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI) and the First Nations National Guardian Network in Canada, supporting the continued growth and coordination of Indigenous guardian programs from coast to coast.  

Through ILI’s work, in 2024 a historic agreement providing $375 million to fund one of the largest Indigenous-led land conservation initiatives in the world was signed by 22 First Nations governments, Canada, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and private donors. The Northwest Territories initiative, NWT: Our Land for the Future, will protect lands, enhance climate resilience, and create jobs, supporting cultural and economic opportunities while honoring Indigenous self-determination.

Through our partnership with the Blackfeet Nation and Blackfoot Confederacy, Nia Tero has affirmed our commitment to supporting Indigenous-led conservation, cultural revitalization, and the long-term restoration of buffalo as a keystone species across the plains. 

The recent release of bison in an area of sacred cultural significance in the Blackfeet reservation was a powerful act of reclamation and assertion of sovereignty, occurring over a century after the bison were on the edge of extinction.

In 2024, our work to formalize the U.S. Indigenous Guardians Network convened more than 60 Indigenous leaders and organizations from across the U.S. and Canada for an in-person gathering in Washington, hosted by the Lummi Nation. The coalition – involving partners including ILI, the Alaska Conservation Foundation, the Christensen Fund, Native Americans in Philanthropy, the Native American Rights Fund and others – laid the first steps for an emerging movement to connect and strengthen Indigenous-led conservation across the contiguous U.S., Alaska and Hawai’i.