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| Mati Tofa, a graduate student at the University of Auckland in New Zealand has joined the Institute for a three-month internship. |
Matalena Tofa joined the Institute as an intern in December 2005. She first heard of the Institute when Mervyn Tano spoke as a guest lecturer in a course taught by Mike Barns, a past Institute Fellow, at The University of Auckland. Her research as an intern will explore indigenous peoples' interests in renewable energy technologies to produce information that can be used by indigenous peoples to participate in and respond to renewable energy development proposals with a better understanding of the potential impacts of these developments.
Ms Tofa is from Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand; and is of Samoan and Pakeha (New Zealand/European) descent. She has recently completed her B.A Hons degree in Human Geography at The University of Auckland, New Zealand; and will return to Auckland to complete her M.A. in March, 2006. At the University, Ms Tofa co-ordinates a mentoring and tutoring program for Maori and Pasifika geography and environmental science students and in 2006 she will also mentor high school students. Ms Tofa was awarded a Chancellors Award for Top Pacific Island Scholar in 2002, and a University of Auckland Masters/Honours Award for Maori/Pacific Students in 2005 to support her studies. Her Honours dissertation explored the politics of community in the context of the Aotea/Great Barrier Island Marine Reserve Proposal. For her Masters thesis, she will examine post-colonial indigenous identity politics, and how these affect indigenous rights in conservation.
Washington, November 3, 2005. Merv Tano, IIIRM president, joined Nicolas Targ of the Environmental Protection Agency, and David Conrad of the National Tribal Environmental Council on a panel to discuss environmental justice on Native American lands. Targ summarized court decisions upholding the need to include environmental justice analysis in NEPA documents. Conrad emphasized the need to enhance tribal capacity to participate in the NEPA process. Merv Tano said that if agencies fulfill the spirit of Section 101 of NEPA, they will achieve environmental justice. "Often we focus too much on the procedural elements of Section 102 as opposed to the policy aspects of Section 101 of NEPA," said Tano. By the time those procedural elements are triggered, he explained, NEPA can “only be used as a shield” to protect a tribe’s interests from the encroachments of a proposed Federal activity. He asked the audience to consider how to use NEPA not only as a shield, but also as a sword to advance tribal interests. He suggested that DOE and tribes should view NEPA “not as a process,” but as the way to achieve “development that is culturally appropriate, economically sustainable, environmentally sound, and supportive of the tribes’ political integrity and the tribes’ social fabric. Click here to read Merv's paper, Environmental Justice in Indian Country: The Role of the National Environmental Policy Act.
Mr. Tano commended DOE for efforts to involve stakeholders in many of its environmental management decisions through cooperative agreements, community networks, and other mechanisms. He said that such efforts often are truer to the spirit of NEPA than DOE’s implementation of the EIS
Denver, December 29, 2005. The International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management, Tanana Chief Conference and Interior Athabascan Tribal College are sponsoring a workhop on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in Alaska on January 10-12, 2006 at the Chena River Convention Center in Fairbanks, Alaska. About fifty decision-makers, natural and cultural resources specialists, and environmental protection professionals from native villages and organizations, federal agencies, and the private sector are braving the January chill in Fairbanks to learn how participation in the NEPA process requires an awareness of the workings and procedural requirements of NEPA, technical expertise, knowledge of the broad range of tribal environmental, social, cultural, health and safety interests that may be affected by federal programs and activities and how to develop a strategy that links NEPA responses to other legal and statutory requirements such as the federal-Indian trust doctrine, treaty rights, AIRFA, NAGPRA, etc. The Workshop will use the proposed renewal of a gas pipeline right-of-way as the backdrop to provide practical instruction and assistance to inform tribal decision-makers on: the requirements and latest developments in NEPA compliance and litigation; the role of tribal, federal and state regulators in the NEPA process; and strategies to identify and protect tribal interests that may be affected by proposed federal actions.
For more information, contact Mervyn Tano at 303-733-0481.