Giving Compass' Take:

• Ambika Chawla calls for urgent action to dismantle systemic racism and make climate conservation organizations more inclusive.

• With environmental and social justice so inextricably related, why is diversity essential in climate conservation organizations? What are you doing in the effort to transfer decision-making power to BIPOC communities in climate conservation efforts?

• Learn about the importance of advancing equity in the outdoors.

As a child growing up in Los Angeles, Erynn Castellanos would spend hours exploring her grandmother’s backyard garden, an oasis of greenery filled with oranges, sugarcane, yerba buena, guava, and herbs.

“Playing with my brother and cousins in my grandmother’s backyard, climbing the trees, and trying different fruits—those experiences made me appreciate natural spaces,” she says.

Now a graduate student of environmental studies at the University of Montana and an active member of the environmental organization Latino Outdoors, Castellanos is passionate about educating young people of color about the importance of connecting with nature, hoping to inspire them to help protect the environment.

“Most of the people in camping advertisements are White people. You don’t see people like yourself in the field of conservation,” she says. “It is always this distant figure of someone else doing it, but not someone who looks like you.”

Castellanos’ perception that people of color are underrepresented in the environmental movement is accurate. Even though communities of color are disproportionately affected by environmental hazards, the environmental workforce remains overwhelmingly White.

As efforts grow around the U.S. to recognize and eradicate systemic racism, people of color can offer unique perspectives on both why diversity is lacking in the green sector and what organizations can do to diversify the environmental workforce.

Castellanos says that, in addition to not seeing people like them already engaged, some members of the Latino community view environmental problems as less pressing than other issues. “Immigration is No. 1, with people being detained,” she says. “How can you tell your students to care about the environment when they are afraid that their parents won’t be home?”

Read the full article about creating inclusivity in climate conservation organizations by Ambika Chawla at YES! Magazine.