Indigenous-led conservation isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s one of the most effective strategies we have to safeguard biodiversity and that promote living sustainably with our planet and each other. In this episode of The Space In Between, I sit down with Valérie Courtois, director of Canada’s Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI)) and recently named to TIME magazine’s list of 100 most influential climate leaders, to explore why Indigenous guardianship, land ‘relationship’ planning, and cross-sector alliances are reshaping conservation at scale. This conversation also helps us navigate the space in between Western and Indigenous-led approaches to conservation in life affirming ways.
A forester by training and a member of the Innu Nation, Valérie brings deep technical rigor alongside a values-anchored worldview shaped by generations of public service in her family. She moves fluidly from leading trips to remote river camps in Labrador to global policy tables—always carrying the same ethic: “How can I serve today?” That grounding keeps her rooted in her home territory, even as she advises heads of state and convenes partners across sectors.
ILI’s Work and Scale of Impact
At the heart of ILI’s work is a simple, powerful idea: Indigenous Peoples are the best stewards and guardians of their territories and indeed, of lands and waters that sustain us all. ILI supports Canada-based Indigenous nations by invitation—helping design and fund Indigenous Guardians programs, advance large protected and conserved areas, and ensure tribal leaders have real-time information that strengthens sovereignty, community, and Indigenous practices.
Valérie shares breathtaking and important insights about the vast Boreal forest regions in what is now known as Canada, where much of ILI’s work is focused. The Boreal—which accounts for about 60% of Canada’s landmass—is one of the largest and most important ecosystems on the planet. It is also the largest intact forest left on Earth. Cold, wet, and carbon-dense, it stores more carbon per hectare than any terrestrial ecosystem, cradles a quarter of the world’s remaining wetlands, safeguards a fifth of its fresh water, and serves as the nursery for billions of North America’s migratory songbirds.
When we care for the Boreal and other intact systems, we’re protecting the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the living chorus that greets our mornings.
From Land Use to Land Relationship
Valérie invites us to replace land use planning with land relationship planning. This shift reframes the goal from a predominantly Western mindset that prioritizes extracting utility from nature to one rooted in reciprocity and responsibility—asking first, what must remain for ecosystems to thrive in perpetuity? We are finding increasing awareness and support for this notion around the world.
Climate extremes bring urgency to this work. From record wildfires across Canada to communities confronting evacuation and infrastructure risk, we’re living a new reality that demands a new management paradigm. Valérie points to the return of “good fire”—cultural burning practiced for millennia—as one example of Indigenous knowledge that reduces catastrophic risk while renewing landscapes. Adaptation here isn’t only emergency response; it’s proactive stewardship: training Guardians, upgrading community infrastructure, and aligning policy and funding so that protection, resilience, and local livelihoods move together.
Bridging Divides by Focusing on What We Have in Common
Bridging divides is both method and mandate. Valérie underscores that durable progress comes from focusing on what we share—love for place, care for children, and a desire for stability—and building unlikely alliances around those common goods. That’s why ILI collaborates with partners ranging from Ducks Unlimited to global insurers and CEOs convened through the Sustainable Markets Initiative—linking stewardship to risk reduction, productivity, and long-term value.
Crucially, Canada’s federal government has invested in Indigenous-led conservation through the Project Finance for Permanence, helping Indigenous nations establish Guardians networks and transition from boom-and-bust extraction toward diversified, stewardship-based economies. It’s a systems approach that threads ecology, culture, and prosperity. Valérie is hopeful that the new federal government will continue to support ILI and other Indigenous-led efforts across Canada.
Words of Wisdom: Valérie’s Wish for Humanity
We end where strong leadership always begins: with love as a daily practice. Valérie’s one wish for listeners is disarmingly practical—experience love every day, in all its forms, including the simple act of noticing your breath…. which may well have been shaped by the Boreal.
In an era of polarization, that orientation helps us release superiority, see each other more clearly, and do the work—together—of protecting the living systems that sustain us.
If this conversation moved you, consider supporting Indigenous Guardians programs locally and globally, learning the story of the land and original Peoples where you live, and sharing this episode.
The path to a livable future runs through reciprocity, relationship, and the courage to collaborate across our differences.
