Unlocking Capital Through Tribal Sovereignty

The Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative (IFAI) supports Tribal Nations through various agricultural programming and technical assistance in establishing Tribal nation-to-nation relationships with the federal government in agriculture. This dynamic will be expanded upon by their new project, Unlocking Capital Through Tribal Sovereignty, which will develop Tribal Conservation Districts to drive both better conservation efforts on Tribal lands and driving critical conservation dollars directly to Tribal producers. Tribal Conservation Districts (TCDs) alongside Agricultural Resource Management Plans (ARMP’s) and Tribal Departments of Agriculture, provide a powerful and coordinated way for a Tribal Nation to ensure lands are well-managed, that producers’ natural resource concerns are linked to corresponding funding and programmatic support from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and that the Tribes’ sovereignty over agricultural lands is maintained. TCDs are a policy mechanism Tribes can enact to connect producers with funding, technical assistance, and other resources to carry out conservation activities, and ensure that Tribal producers’ resource concerns are consistently voiced to USDA and funding is provided to address them. Empowering Tribal control of Tribal food systems, both through TCDs and through food assistance/food procurement, enhances Tribal investment in agriculture and leads to both additional federal dollars as well as market creation opportunities for Native-produced foods that are local. This project will help Tribal Nations build strong legal foundations that drive their investments in agriculture and ensure that Native producers have access to the training they need to continue accessing markets for their products.