Indigenous Engagement Across Ontario

Since 2022, we have been supporting the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) – Canada’s leading national land conservation organization. As a private, non-profit organization, NCC partners with individuals, corporations, foundations, Indigenous communities and other non-profit organizations and governments at all levels to protect the natural areas that sustain Canada’s plants and wildlife. Since 1962, NCC and its partners have helped to protect 20 million hectares, coast to coast to coast.

Fundacja Drzewo i Jutro’s (FDJ’s) support of NCC has funded initiatives in Ontario that have helped the organization to build meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities, through supporting Indigenous-led conservation, investing in internal cultural competency and capacity-building, and evolving their approaches to nature conservation to better recognize and support Indigenous rights and relationship to the land. These durable collaborative conservation outcomes include purchasing a water quality monitoring station, providing sponsorships for community events, and supporting Indigenous youth land-based education opportunities. NCC has also used these funds to support Indigenous leadership in conservation, connecting with advisors on such projects as conducting an archaeological survey of the MacMillan Nature Reserve, a step that is needed prior to starting restoration work. NCC has been able to support other Indigenous-led conservation projects, as well as continue to focus on meaningful relationship-building and shared learning opportunities between the organization and Indigenous communities.

FDJ has since made a multi-year commitment to NCC that will support consistency and longevity in this work over the next three years. This funding will support staff in continuing to build on existing relationships with Indigenous communities, and in engaging with communities with whom they do not yet have a relationship. FDJ funds will allow NCC to build capacity to support and partner with Indigenous communities in land management, research, surveys and other community-led activities.

Many of these initiatives engage Indigenous communities located near lands that FDJ helped protect, including Hastings Wildlife Junction near Bancroft, Ontario, and Boreal Wildlands, near Hearst, Ontario.