On March 4-6, within the ancestral homelands of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, we had the privilege of co-hosting the 2025 New Mexico Tribal Forest & Fire Summit. The gathering brought together nearly 200 Tribal foresters, natural resource experts, hydrologists, community leaders, and representatives from NGOs, state and federal agencies, academic institutions, and conservation businesses to focus on successes, futures, and associated challenges for Indigenous-led conservation.

Beyond the Grant: The Power of Funding with Presence and Purpose A Testament to Indigenous Leadership in Fire and Forest Stewardship
Written by Juliana Rodríguez—Conservation Social Scientist, M.S. Global Conservation Leadership & MEng. Environmental Management

In 2024, Trees, Water, and People (TWP) provided scholarships to four CSU students, all Indigenous women, working towards careers in natural sciences and conservation. Scholarships sustained three students’ work with the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd, and supported one, Lizzy Osterhoudt, in leading research that honors her experience as a Pueblo woman.

Gender equity has been at the center of TWP’s work since the early days of our clean cookstoves program, more than 27 years ago. At that time, we followed the guidance of local women to design the Justa stove – named after Doña Justa Nuñez, who led the process in Honduras – and develop a stove program that prioritized women’s health, protected forests, and created local economic opportunity.

La Colectiva is a feminist consultancy formed by four Indigenous women, born from challenges they faced within other organizations. As many women within community organizations still encounter an ingrained machismo culture and majority male leadership, La Colectiva seeks to re-empower at the personal and grassroots level.

Maria Magdalena Ixquiactap Tuc – “Magda” – has been a key leader in a collaboration between TWP and Coordinadora de Mujeres Líderes Territoriales de Mesoamérica (CMLT). As part of the regional initiative, Magdalena facilitates capacity building and knowledge exchange amongst community-based organizations in Guatemala.

Thanks to funds managed by TWP through the Forix Foundation, it was possible to improve and expand the facilities of the historic COEAS nursery.

As diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts are increasingly targeted at the federal level, TWP’s Indigenous Lands Outreach Coordinator, Phillip Chavez, shares his perspectives on the broader context of DEI efforts.

Jordana Barrack is the Executive Director of Mighty Arrow Family Foundation, one of TWP’s key funding partners and supporters. Established by the founders of New Belgium Brewing Company, Mighty Arrow‘s funding priorities include social justice, climate change, food systems, and land & water stewardship.

In February 2005, I left my home in San Francisco and spun out of the sky onto the notoriously short runway of Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Two weeks prior I had attended my first ETHOS clean-cooking conference in Kirkland, WA, had met Trees, Water & People’s (TWP) founder Stuart Conway for the first time, and entered an obscure line of work that would move me toward my goal of getting paid to travel to Latin America.

At Trees, Water & People (TWP), we’re fortunate to have minimal exposure to current federal cuts, and to be well-positioned to sustain programs. Make no mistake, these will be trying times for the places we work and the people we serve, but TWP stands prepared to continue and expand our efforts.

After a long effort to organize and access support,  the Association of Xinca Agroecological Promoters of Jalapa (ASOPROAJ) attained legal status in 2022. ASOPROAJ is an association of more than 90 members from Indigenous Xinca communities in Guatemala, working to practice agroecology, develop sustainable livelihoods, and protect their territories.

As our work in New Mexico has expanded, we’ve focused on partnerships that unite conservation efforts with local employment opportunities, attending to the connections between ecological and economic stability.

Our long-term partnerships in Central America have led us to countless models that generate value locally while retaining communal, land-based values. These models, with the right support, could be a foundation for inclusive economic stability as the region faces high levels of inequality, shifts in migration, and climate change.

Today, as millions of eyes turn towards Washington, we’re staying focused on the communities at the heart of what we do. We’ve brought together members of our team to share their perspectives on our work, our vision for the future, and our collective path forward.

Traditionally, the Núchíú (Ute people) were nomadic, moving across vast ancestral lands to steward the resources, including native plants, that supported their lifeways. Today, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT) members are restricted to less than 600,000 acres of Reservation and Fee land from which to collect traditional plants, year after year.

TWP has partnered with Utz Ché, a network of over 40 communities and collectives in Guatemala, since 2012. Utz Ché means “good tree” in the Mayan language, K’iche’, and the organization represents approximately 200,000 people throughout the country, more than 90% of them Indigenous.

Fondly referred to as “Hellen with two Ls,” or simply “Castro,” in the office, Hellen Castro has been with TWP since 2020 as our Development and Outreach Manager. Hellen’s work spans departments, focused on the marketing communications, donor relationships, and fundraising efforts that support our programs.

There are many tax-friendly incentives to donate to charities like TWP in 2024. Some of these incentives stem from past tax laws, while others have been long-standing.

Trees, Water & People (TWP) is proud to announce a $1.1MM grant commitment from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) for an ambitious environmental restoration project in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, located within the ancestral homelands of several Pueblo communities.