Tribal Management
Includes Tribal co-management, and management of wildfire risk reduction, response, and recovery.
The Commission recognized the need to enable Indigenous stewardship and co-management throughout its work. In some places, Tribes are successfully working to steward the natural environment and reduce wildfire risk, however updated and new authorities and additional investments in building and sustaining Tribal capacity will allow more Tribes to be equitably engaged. Policy solutions related to this need include those focused on the natural environment (R28-R31), wildfire response (R48-R49), workforce development (R92) and housing (R103), and the role of cultural burning (R96). Additionally, the Commission made recommendations related to protections of Tribal data sovereignty (R115) and funding for Tribal capacity (R127-R128). The Commission also made recommendations related to Tribal equity (R140-R141), including the need to continue to work toward Tribal self-governance, self-determination and federal co-stewardship and co-management with Tribes.
“Tribes are well positioned to coordinate and implement this work, as demonstrated by existing Tribal self-determination and self-governance initiatives. However, the legal frameworks and funding mechanisms for Indigenous stewardship are incomplete, variable, full of inefficiencies, and misaligned with the true needs of Tribal communities.” p. 73