Indigenous Conservation Collaborations
An eight-week cohort course for conservation leaders, NGO staff, government liaisons and allied professionals. It builds the skills to move beyond outreach toward authentic, sovereignty-affirming partnerships with Indigenous communities.
- Executive learning
- Next cohort spring 2027
Eight weeks
Online cohortSix live sessions
Offered Spring A 2027About 15 hours
Mostly asynchronousCertificate and badge
ASU credential
Partnership has to mean more than consultation
Conservation organizations increasingly work on or beside Indigenous lands, and the quality of those relationships shapes what the work can achieve. This course treats that relationship as a professional competency rather than a matter of good intentions.
Participants examine Tribal sovereignty and Indigenous knowledge systems, the effects of historical harms such as fortress conservation, and the ethical frameworks that guide respectful collaboration. The course runs on expert-led video, case studies, cohort discussion and conversations with Indigenous faculty.
You leave with a Partnership Strategy built for a real collaboration you are working on, and a peer network that continues after the course.
What you will learn
Five things you will be able to do afterward
- Connect biodiversity, cultural diversity and sovereignty
Articulate the links between biological and cultural diversity and Tribal sovereignty, and identify the principles of Indigenous governance that bear on conservation. - Apply rights-based and justice frameworks
Put UNDRIP, the Four Rs and environmental justice principles to work, and translate Indigenous ecological knowledge into program design and evaluation. - Work within cultural protocols and ethical research
Understand protocols, institutional review boards and advisory structures, and design conservation strategies with Indigenous collaborators. - Design community-centered conservation plans
Build long-term partnerships grounded in respect, reciprocity and sovereignty rather than one-off engagement. - Produce a Partnership Strategy.
Develop a capstone strategy for a real collaboration and join a peer network for ongoing support and accountability.
What the course covers
Six modules and a final synthesis
You are on Native land
The goals and structure of the course, and the diversity of Indigenous peoples, knowledge systems and lands, starting where you are.
Indigenous 101
Indigenous histories and knowledge systems, the foundations of American Indian law and the global frameworks that protect Indigenous rights and sovereignty.
Indigenous sciences
How Indigenous sciences center kinship, place and knowledge sovereignty, through concepts including traditional ecological knowledge and Two-Eyed Seeing.
Indigenous conservation
The principles behind Indigenous-led conservation, through case studies on culture, ecology and governance.
Weaving knowledges
Past conservation missteps, and how ethical frameworks and justice principles guide more reciprocal collaboration.
Final synthesis
A final project that turns your reflection into a Partnership Strategy you can use.
The course opens with a welcome module introducing the instructors and the Indigenous Tribes whose lands ASU calls home.
Who it is for
Professionals who work alongside Indigenous communities
- Conservation and NGO program directors
Leaders who need practical tools for ethical collaboration. - Tribal liaisons and government officers
Professionals engaging Tribal Nations on co-management. - Sustainability executives
Corporate leaders aligning conservation work with Indigenous rights. - Co-management and land restoration leads
Anyone running community engagement or restoration initiatives.
Course design and instruction
Alycia De Mesa
Course faculty
Global Futures Scholar Alycia de Mesa's maternal lineage is Apache of Chihuahua (Mexico), mestiza and Japanese descent. She works with tribal communities as the Indigenous Education Specialist and co-PI for the Firekeeper's Initiative (Building Archival Data Sovereignty through Indigenous Memory Keeping) with Labriola National American Indian Data Center at ASU. Her research focused on centering Indigenous Knowledge Sovereignty for community memory keeping through digital storytelling and counter mapping.
Melissa Nelson , Ph.D.
Course designer
Global Futures Professor in the Rob Walton School of Conservation Futures and the School of Sustainability
Dr. Nelson is an Indigenous ecologist, writer, editor, media-maker and award-winning scholar-activist. Before joining the School of Sustainability, ASU in 2020, she served as a professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University (2002 – 2020), specializing in Indigenous Environmental and Native California Indian Studies. Dr. Nelson also served as founding executive director and CEO of The Cultural Conservancy, an Indigenous-led nonprofit organization from 1993 - 2021.
Course details
Format, dates and how to join
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Next cohort: Spring 2027
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Online and scheduled, mostly asynchronous, with six live sessions
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Eight weeks, two weekly time slots, about 15 hours
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$950 tuition
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ASU certificate of completion and digital badge
Connect with Conservation Futures Academy
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