An official website of

Fish & Wildlife Conservation for Who?
A Decolonial Feminist Perspective in Colorado

Presented by Gemara Gifford, M.S. in conjunction with FWCB Graduate/Faculty Seminar

Colorado State University, Ph.D. Student in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources

Gemara Gifford, CCC Special Projects Coordinator

Indigenous peoples protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity across forests, grasslands, marine ecosystems, and beyond, yet the mainstream environmental movement has only recently acknowledged this. As a result, practitioners and scholars from fish, wildlife, and natural resource fields are seeking to reckon with the elitism and racism of the conservation movement which are threats to the field’s relevance and effectiveness. The State of Colorado is an exemplar case for understanding how the colonized notion of Manifest Destiny prevails in fish, wildlife, and land conservation. Using a decolonial and multiracial feminist lens, Gemara addresses the current barriers and opportunities for fish and wildlife conservation to be more just and liberatory for Colorado’s Native leaders, elders, and concerned community members. Addressing the structural, political, and cultural challenges that remain in statewide fish and wildlife efforts is one way to heal from past harms. Another is to envision fish and wildlife conservation from the direction of over 48 Native Nations with long-held relationships to Colorado’s lands.

Watch Gemara’s presentation here!
(suggest skip to time 1:50 for the beginning of Gem’s presentation)

News

CCC News: April 2025

We’re being observant and busy bees this month! In our February Newsletter, we’re announcing a new addition to our Fellows

Read More »
"John" in a handwritten cursive signature
John's Journal

Women’s History Month

On my path to the Center for Collaborative Conservation, I am grateful for my mother, my spouse and daughter, and

Read More »
Scholarly & Applied

Shared Governance

The idea of “governance” is central to how collaborative conservation works. In fact, collaborative conservation and democracy share several key

Read More »
Notes from the Field

Collaboration and HOAs

We wanted to partner with HOAs to remove invasive grasses from their properties for both safety and to support invasive

Read More »
News

CCC News: February 2025

We’re being observant and busy bees this month! In our February Newsletter, we’re announcing a new addition to our Fellows

Read More »
Notes from the Field

Centering Well-being in 2025

The skills that the collaborative conservation field requires can offer us some amazing tools for centering well-being, including trust, relationship

Read More »
News

CCC News: December 2024

In our final 2024 CCC newsletter, we’re celebrating a successful year in collaborative conservation, giving thanks to the people who

Read More »
Search