Nature For Justice

Team Nature For Justice at New York Climate Week, with First 30x30 Canada and N4J Farmer Prosperity gathered around the same table and the same set of questions.

Wednesday's Land, Rights, Legacy and Climate Resilience event, generously hosted by Freedmen Heirs Foundation, brought us together to ask who holds the land, who decides what happens to it, and whose knowledge shapes those decisions.

Thank you to our hosts and to everyone who joined us in the room. We're looking forward to carrying these conversations well beyond the week.

From left to right: Patrick Brown, Nicola Mander, Steven Nitah, Lorena James 金兰睿, Hank Cauley and Kamryn Whiteye.

Steven Nitah and Kamryn Whiteye of First 30x30 Canada at Terraformation’s Reforest the Future summit, where Steven spoke on: Ownership in Practice: Indigenous leadership and the next 20 years of restoration.

Steven helped establish Thaidene Nëné, where the Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation sits as an equal partner in governance and management. It is a useful picture of what shared ownership can look like once the paperwork is signed and the work begins. At Nature For Justice, we believe restoration lasts longest when the people who have tended a place for generations hold real authority over it.

Thanks to moderator Annie Frances Thompson and Terraformation, and to fellow speakers Cathy Watson of Landscape Alliance | CIFOR & ICRAF, Margarita Mora of Nia Tero and Nina Kantcheva of the UNDP.

Live now at . 🌍

Nature For Justice and Freedmen Heirs Foundation have brought agricultural leaders from the US and First Nations leaders from Canada together in Midtown Manhattan for our Rights, Land, Legacy and Climate Resilience Event.

Land rights. Indigenous governance. Regenerative agriculture. And what it will take to move climate finance closer to the communities doing the work.

Reflections to follow.

Patrick Brown, our VP N4J Farmer Prosperity, was at Regen House today, taking part in a National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition panel built around a question our Growing Farmer Prosperity work asks every day: what does resilience actually look like for the farmers carrying the most risk?

The moderated roundtable brought together young farmer leaders from across the country, each rooted in a different region and a different set of pressures: land access, water scarcity, volatile weather, shifting seasons, heat and flooding. One seat belonged to an Indigenous farmer, included not as a separate category but as part of whichever region they farm.

Grateful to see Patrick with all his expertise in the room for this conversation.

Next week Steven Nitah of First 30x30 Canada, joins a panel with Terraformation at on the topic: Ownership in Practice: Indigenous Leadership and the Next Twenty Years of Restoration

Steven will be speaking alongside speakers from the Landscape Alliance | CIFOR & ICRAF, Nia Tero and UNDP, moderated by Annie Thompson of Terraformation.

Through First 30x30 Canada, Steven works with Indigenous governments to advance conservation, protect special places and pursue nature-based solutions. As Chief and Lead Negotiator he helped establish Thaidene Nëné, with a relationship agreement recognising the Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation as an equal partner in governance and management.

📅 Tuesday 22 September 2026

🕚 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

📍 Tokyo Room, Reforest the Future summit, Bryant Park area, New York City

Part of Terraformation's Reforest the Future summit during NY Climate Week.

https://terraformation.com/nycw-2026-session-information/ownership-in-practice

One week to go!

Next Wednesday during , Nature For Justice and Freedmen Heirs Foundation bring together Black agricultural leaders from the US and First Nations leaders from Canada for an intimate, story-led conversation:

Rights, Land, Legacy and Climate Resilience

📅 Wednesday, 23 September | 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM ET
📍 Midtown Manhattan

Patrick Brown, Lorena James, of N4J Farmer Prosperity, Seanicaa Herron of Freedman Heirs and Steven Nitah and Kamryn Whiteye of First 30x30 Canada will share personal stories and practical examples on land rights, Indigenous governance, regenerative agriculture, and what it will take to move climate and nature finance closer to the communities doing the work.

✅ We are now fully booked. Thank you to everyone who requested an invitation. The response has been wonderful, and we are sorry we could not accommodate everyone in the room.

If you were not able to join us, we will share reflections and takeaways from the conversation here afterwards, so do follow along.

Join us during New York Climate Week for an intimate conversation about rights, land, legacy and climate resilience.

Nature For Justice and Freedmen Heirs Foundation are bringing together Black agricultural leaders from the United States and First Nations leaders from Canada to explore a shared imperative:

Climate action is stronger, more equitable and more durable when the people on the land have the rights, resources and decision-making power to lead.

📅 Wednesday, 23 September 2026

⏰ 10:30 AM-12:00 PM ET

📍 Midtown Manhattan

Through personal stories and practical examples, our speakers will explore Black-owned farmland, land loss, Indigenous rights and governance, regenerative agriculture, environmental stewardship and what climate and nature finance must do differently.

We particularly welcome funders, investors, businesses and partners working across climate, nature and community-led development.

Spaces are limited and attendance is by confirmed invitation.

📩 Request an invitation: [email protected]

Last week, our First 30x30 Canada team joined the 2026 Victoria Forum, where Steven Nitah joined the RAD Network, the Centre for First Nations Governance, and Honeytree Investment Management for a panel on Indigenous jurisdiction and nature finance in Canada.🍁

Indigenous land stewardship is a climate solution, and we're grateful for every conversation that brings nature finance closer to reflecting that. See more on thoer post directly, link below.

Nicci Mander takes the torch from founding CEO Hank Cauley today 🪔🗝️

Her marker for the road ahead: protecting nature must reward the people who actually steward it. Right now, too many farmers, Indigenous Peoples and local communities carry the cost of caring for land while the benefits go elsewhere.

Nicci's vision starts with people first: their land, their rights, their aspirations. Then N4J builds the partnerships and financing to match, with ownership and value staying in their hands.

Stronger local economies. Healthier landscapes. Communities with the power to steward their own home.

https://nature4justice.earth/light-on-the-road-ahead/

That's the work ahead. 🌍

Water connects everything: climate, food, land, borders.

Indigenous communities and small scale regenerative farmers have long protected the water systems we all depend on, often without funding or protection of their own.

Justice starts with backing the people already doing the work.