7 Principles of Indigenous Cooperative Stewardship

Polycentric institutions, such as U.S. Climate Sciences Centers and
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, bring together diverse,
self-governing entities with independent strategies and assets to
address social-ecological sustainability issues. Polycentric
institutions often recognize the importance of partnering with
Indigenous peoples to achieve landscape-scale environmental goals.
However, dividing responsibility and managing knowledge across
cultural differences remain key challenges for these institutions.
Through case analysis of 39 such partnerships, this research presents
seven principles to guide successful Indigenous participation in
polycentric governance institutions and associated strategies that
directly guide partnership development. This research fills a major
gap in applied understanding of how to create broad, successful and
multilateral partnerships that share decision making authority and
knowledge between Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous partners. This
project was funded by the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes Landscape
Conservation Cooperative.