Stewardship Workforce Special Convening: Breaking Silos and Taking Action
The need for ecological resilience has never been more critical to California communities. To meet the challenges of climate change and biodiversity conservation, including 30×30, California’s ecosystems need diligent care from a well-trained and diverse workforce capable of effective land stewardship. Equally important for a just and flourishing future is recognizing Indigenous peoples’ knowledge, wisdom, and right to steward their traditional homelands.
In September 2024, CBN held a “Stewardship Workforce Special Convening” with MIG in Berkeley. Leaders in stewardship training, employers and funders came together to focus on advancing a skilled and inclusive stewardship workforce essential for California’s ecosystems and community resilience. Discussions highlighted barriers like low wages, inadequate training, poorly defined career pathways, and workplaces that are not safe or welcoming for everyone. Participants outlined goals, including better defining the stewardship sector including job codes, titles and skills required; uplifting Tribal led Indigenous stewardship; and improving bidding and hiring processes, safe workplaces, and equitable access to training, employment and advancement.
Learn more about ongoing efforts to support a robust, diverse, and highly-skilled stewardship workforce, check out the new Stewardship Workforce Training Database!
Please join the CBN Stewardship Roundtable to keep the momentum going.
About the Stewardship Workforce Training Program Database
An interactive database offering information about stewardship programs across the state. This publicly available database can be used to identify and promote training, certification, and collaboration opportunities to care for biodiversity and support ecosystem resilience.
This database is designed to link individuals and organizations to training, certification, and collaboration opportunities that will prepare them for jobs within California’s environmental workforce sector. This resource was created by the California Biodiversity Network’s Stewardship Roundtable, a community of practice working on land and water stewardship of protected area networks and working lands in California.
This database was made possible by MIG and the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resource (UC ANR) Informatics and GIS Program, and funded by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.
To find programs: Select any stewardship focus criteria you are interested in on the left and matching programs will be listed on the right. Click on any program listed on the right for more details including a map location.
To suggest a program: We will continue to add programs and you can help! Click the “Submit a new program” button to contribute to the growing list.
A convening of Tribal leaders, Indigenous culture bearers, and public land management agencies from the places now known as the United States, Canada, and Mexico took place in February 2024.
This event was a partnership of the California Biodiversity Network and the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (FIGR), with grants from the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation and Resources Legacy Fund.
You can read more about this event here.