Délı̨nę

That’s right, a new $375-million deal will help protect over 30 per cent of the Northwest Territories in total. That’s not all — the agreement is also one of the largest of its kind in the world. “We’ve been removed from the land for 100 years,” Danny Gaudet, Ɂek’wahtı̨dǝ́ (elected leader) of the Délı̨nę Got’ınę Government, said. “This signing allows us to go back. It will help us go back to our traditions and our culture.” Signed by 22 Indigenous governments and organizations along with the federal government, the Government of Northwest Territories and private donors, the agreement aims to establish new protected and conserved areas, Guardian programs, ecotourism, traditional economic activities and climate research.
And the size of the new protected and conserved areas? Approximately 200,000 square kilometres, or roughly the size of Great Britain. Yellowknife-based freelance journalist Chloe Williams attended the celebration in Behchokǫ̀, N.W.T., that marked this very rare collaboration with a day of speeches, jigging and drum dancing. As Dahti Tsetso, deputy director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, told Chloe,

 “it’s not just about the hectares, it’s really about the people.”

And what exactly is so Wall Street about this deal? Well, conservation projects often rely on short-term and piecemeal funding; one leader told Chloe that he spends most of his time trying to scrape together funds to keep an Indigenous-led conserved and protected area going. Those challenges make it hard to build sustainable initiatives, retain staff and work toward a long-term vision. But this project uses a type of funding model, project finance for permanence (PFP), that works with stakeholders and funders alike to deliver funding for every essential aspect of the conservation initiative at the same time, with guaranteed funding for the future (for at least 10 years in this case). That’s exactly what drew Chloe to write about the agreement. “I moved to Yellowknife two years ago, and I’ve been struck by the amount of paperwork and bureaucracy communities in the territory are dealing with to keep their programs running,” she told me. “This was an opportunity to report on some of these funding challenges while also covering a major win for Indigenous-led conservation.” There are other benefits to the relatively new model in conservation — like the fact that the funding is designed to continue even if federal political leadership changes (there’s a looming election on the horizon!). But I won’t break it all down for you here — go check out Chloe’s feature, with photos and videos from the ceremony by Pat Kane. 

Take care and think big,

Karan Saxena 
Audience engagement editor