Connecting Lives and Landscapes

Dear Friend,

I am writing this to you from Santiago, Chile – where I am finally concluding a Fulbright Fellowship originally scheduled for 2020. Chile shares so much in common with California, with its capital city of Santiago located in the heart of the country’s Mediterranean region. Chileans are facing similar challenges: land fragmentation, habitat conversion, struggling agriculture, severe drought, and unprecedented megafires.

In both countries, these factors cause deep environmental, social, and economic strain. Through this cross-hemisphere partnership, we are working to re-engineer conservation science by incorporating equity into its guiding principles. Conservation has a legacy founded on cultural imperialism that we must overcome and evolve through. By leveraging our interconnectivity I find that we are not only stronger together, but I believe we can find a way to succeed as a global community.

Today we’re seeing a shift in conservation. Historically, conservation initiatives were largely funded by large, often international organizations, which made massive nationscale investments to help establish large public protected areas. But at times these places became inaccessible to the people living in close proximity, and the benefits of these natural areas became exclusive to all but those with the privilege of access. Now there is a greater emphasis on community engagement, leadership, access, and stewardship of our conserved lands and waters across public, private, and Indigenous jurisdictions and cultures.

Working within and across communities requires building a collaborative network grounded in trust. With Pepperwood´s role as a participant in the Chile-California Conservation Exchange since 2016, the fruits of our international collaboration are blooming. Since then, with leadership from a set of collaborative conservacionistas (conservers of nature), Chile’s Civil Code was amended to provide a framework for conservation easements – the legal tool that allows private land to be dedicated to nature protection into perpetuity. This provided the incentive to form the nation’s first land trust, Fundación Tierra Austral, led by my friend and colleague Victoria Alonso, who has been a driving force behind this movement. I am inspired by the work being done in Chile. I am seeing on this journey that the ways we use science as a tool can build trust. It is a thread that connects us.

Victoria reminisced that as part of our Chile-California Exchange, she had been struck by the wisdom of one of my personal conservation heroes, Sharon Farrell, founder of the California Lands Stewardship Network, and key influencer in the formation of OneTam and the Golden Gate Biosphere. Sharon emphasized the need for what she called, “60 Cups of Tea,” the ability to slow down and listen – over tea, or maybe even a cold beer – to create a foundation for meaningful relationships. Instead of charging ahead and “producing results,” or ¨making an impact¨ (doing what many of us in this field may feel we have been trained to do). What is really needed is time taken to know each other, build trust, and forge a sense of shared purpose and belonging. Ultimately, the most important ingredient to our collective success in community-based conservation, is building the trust of landowners, agencies, and the public.

Now a question guiding my enquiry is what is the role of science in building trust, especially in the context of community-based work? How can science help bridge political differences and general mistrust some may bear towards the government or private sector? I have experienced a number of collaborations where science was an effective means of establishing a healthy dialogue between diverse interests. With your support and engagement, this is part of Pepperwood’s approach to making conservation equitable and accessible.

Because we are all – somos todos – conservacionistas.

Warm regards,

Lisa Micheli