Meet the First Nations Man Negotiating to Preserve Boreal Forest in Canada’s North

Steven Nitah is chief negotiator for the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation in Canada’s Northwest Territories.  He's working to establish the proposed Thaidene Nene National Park Reserve, which would protect 3.5 million acres of boreal forest and tundra from development. Thaidene Nene is hailed as a new model for national parks in Canada—one that recognizes the authority of the people who have been its stewards for millennia as well as the importance of traditional knowledge in keeping the land healthy.

The boreal region of Canada stretches across more than a billion acres, and is one of the largest intact forest ecosystems on Earth. Pew’s International Boreal Conservation Campaign encourages a balance between development and conservation and works with the people who live there to achieve that goal. People of the Boreal is a multimedia project that tells the stories of those who have the most to gain or lose from decisions about how the region is managed.

Learn more about Indigenous negotiator Steven Nitah, and view the entire People of the Boreal series.