DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
Acknowledgements & Inspiration
“It’s not just land that is broken, but more importantly, our relationship to land.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
“Climate change affects us all. It doesn’t affect everyone equally.”
― Vanessa Huac, award-winning journalist on Telemundo
“To solve the new century's mounting social and environmental problems, people of color activists and white activists need to be able to join forces. But all too often, the unconscious racism of white activists stands in the way of any effective, worthwhile collaboration.”
― Van Jones, environmental advocate and civil rights activist
While it is becoming more accepted by leaders in the mostly white environmental movement that environmental racism has led to disproportionate impacts on Black and Brown communities, the conservation movement has much to do more to genuinely engage and build trust across cultural and racial boundaries.
Vision for Equity
We believe that healthy ecosystems, intact rural lands, and livable urban communities are essential conditions to an environment where every Central Oregonian can reach their full potential. In the spirit of the land use planning system, it is LandWatch’s vision that Central Oregon’s natural resources and livable communities be held in trust for future generations, so that all Central Oregonians enjoy access to healthy waterways and clean drinking water; healthy food, and the opportunity to produce it; accessible communities with character; wild places to explore; and vibrant ecosystems that characterize the Central Oregon way of life.
Guiding Principles
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” These words from Martin Luther King, Jr. apply as directly to conservation and environmentalism as they do to civil rights.
Injustice is intersectional. The same structural power dynamics that cause social inequality also cause environmental inequality. The fates of the people and natural environment of our region are intertwined.
The history of land use planning, community development, and public natural resource management is imbued with white supremacy culture. Acknowledging this history and calling out its results in the present day is necessary.
Facing the environmental and social challenges of our age will require enormous imagination, optimism, and collaboration. If we are not tapping into the most minds and the widest breadth of lived experiences, all efforts will be shortchanged. We need to have the best ideas and people at the table.
Where something happens implicates who it affects. As practitioners of land use planning and public natural resource management, we recognize that the needs of people, cultures, plants, and animals vary across our region.
Our mission spans the human and nonhuman, and we recognize that our work has had and will continue to impact the people, cultures, and natural environment present in Central Oregon.
Our Commitments
We can’t, as Einstein put it, solve the problems using the same thinking and process that caused the problems. In the critical next phase of creating a more inclusive and racially just environmental movement, it is imperative, both ethically and politically, to build trust with BIPOC communities by supporting racial and economic equity.
At Central Oregon LandWatch, we will:
Practice continuous learning and adaptation and request feedback from communities and stakeholders. We recognize we will make mistakes. We will continuously evaluate the organization's practices, programs, and policies through our diversity, equity and inclusion lens and be willing to make changes as needed.
Build authentic relationships with communities of color and share decision-making power, resources, and responsibilities to ensure mutual benefit and respect. We acknowledge and will address power dynamics at play within the organization, within our place in the community, and at scale in our region and country. We hold no illusions about LandWatch being a savior to impacted communities or leading in challenging social injustice, and we understand that we will gain invaluable insights and learn important skills from impacted communities.
Operate at the societal/structural and policy level. Our work influences the policy and legal frameworks that filter down to peoples’ lives in meaningful ways. We will seek to counter the negative impacts of racial exclusion and redlining, which are illegal now, but continue to have lasting effects, and work to uphold the treaties made with tribes.
Help Central Oregonians build or rebuild a relationship with the land. Highlight local traditional ecological knowledge, inspire love of place, plants, and wildlife; resist commodification- and extraction-based relationships with the land; and resist the temptation to broadcast tired settler-colonialism attitudes and tropes.
Advocate for a more equitable future. LandWatch’s community-building and place-making work holds innumerable opportunities to improve the lives of Central Oregonians. We will work to equitably distribute the benefits and burdens of land use policy and decision-making.
Commitment to growth
We are committed to growing, learning, and changing our practices as we are continually challenged to do better. Do you have ideas or resources you would like to share? Do you have questions about our practices and where we stand?