A promising and historic agreement for Indigenous-led land conservation was signed in the Northwest Territories (NWT) on November 14, 2024.
The NWT: Our Land for the Future agreement is a Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) model of sustainable funding for conversation initiatives. In this case, specifically in the NWT.
The signing comes with $375-million dollar commitment. Canada will contribute $300-million and private donors will contribute $75-million.
The goal is this will contribute to a long-term sustainable funding to help indigenous peoples be self-determining over the care of their traditional territories, land and waters while maintaining their sacred relationship with animals.
NISC would like to extend our congratulations and a heartfelt Mahsi Cho to Steering Committee member Dahti Tsetso who is also Deputy Director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative for her role in bringing the Indigenous Nations and organizations together with crown governments to make this deal happen.
In Dahti's words from the signing ceremony yesterday with her kids present, "strongly featured among those stories (of her children) has been my inspiration to have my children and other little boys and girls all across our North to have the example of Guardians to look up to and aspire to be one day. The investments from this initiative will help realize that potential future. It is very rare for an opportunity to come along that has the potential to catalyses large-scale cross-generational impact."
Congratulations Dahti and everyone who worked so hard to make this happen. Mahsi Cho!
Here are links for some more information about the agreement: