About

Our Mission

is to ensure that historically and deliberately excluded communities have access to the outdoors and that their history, values, and people are authentically reflected in public land and water management decisions.

OUR BEGINNINGS

In 2017, a group of Latino friends from Las Cruces, New Mexico, frustrated by the lack of engagement opportunities with public lands in the borderlands and feeling tokenized in conservation and outdoor recreation spaces, founded the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project. They started by organizing community events like cookouts, camping, and river rafting trips to foster local involvement in conservation, and by 2019, Nuestra Tierra achieved 501(c)(3) non-profit status, launching significant initiatives such as the New Mexico Outdoor Equity Fund and the national Outdoor F.U.T.U.R.E Initiative. Despite its national reach, including support for the Biden-Harris 30x30 and Justice 40 initiatives, Nuestra Tierra maintains its strong local focus in southern New Mexico, continually redefining 21st-century conservation.

BUILDING

COMMUNITY

Nuestra Tierra emphasizes that building community is foundational to successful conservation efforts, whether through projects like restoring the La Mancha wetlands in Las Cruces or forming coalitions to conserve landmarks like Castner Range National Monument in El Paso, TX, demonstrating that local leadership and expertise lead to sustainable outcomes and intertwining conservation with community building.

Policy

ADVOCACY

Nuestra Tierra is at the forefront of redefining 21st-century conservation by ensuring that historically underserved communities participate in public planning processes, advocating for legislative policies that address inequitable access to outdoor management on state and national levels, and emphasizing that conservation is about both land and people.

Empowering

YOUTH

We are committed to advancing the conservation movement by supporting initiatives like the Outdoor Fund for Underrepresented Tribal, Urban, and Rural Equity (F.U.T.U.R.E.) act and the David Soules Conservation Memorial Scholarship, which help break down barriers for low-income youth of color and provide stipends to college students pursuing conservation studies.

OUR VISION

Through community building, policy and advocacy, & youth empowerment, Nuestra Tierra works at the intersection of environmental conservation & social equity.

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OUR WORK

CHECK OUT OUR ADVOCACY LOCALLY, REGIONALLY, & NATIONALLY!

OUR STORIES

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STORIES THAT MOVE US FORWARD.

CONTACT

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