Inside Climate News interviews Ranco on land returns to indigenous communities
Inside Climate News interviewed Darren Ranco, chair of Native American Programs and professor of anthropology at the University of Maine, on how returning land to indigenous groups benefits their sovereignty, as well as land conservation efforts. “There’s something happening in land trusts and conservation groups more generally, not only nationally, but internationally, where indigenous-led efforts are being seen more and more as the kind of special sauce around what makes conservation better and last longer and have greater impact,” said Ranco, who is also a citizen of Penobscot Nation. Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit organization, is set to return 31,000 acres from a Maine timber investor to the Penobscot Nation, which would be the largest return of its kind to an indigenous tribe in U.S. history.