Public Land & Ocean
Overview
Public Lands and oceans are often seen as a defining feature of our nation's character. Throughout our history, exclusion, oppression, and injustices have shaped the land and ocean management policies and have created real barriers to access to marginalized communities. Latino/a/x communities from across the nation have deep-rooted connections to land and ocean that define our culture and sense of belonging.
GreenLatinos works to cultivate authentic relationships by convening a broad coalition of Latino/a/x leaders committed to addressing public lands and ocean conservation issues that significantly affect the health and welfare of Latino/a/x communities and other communities of color in the United States.
Our goal is to elevate and amplify the stories of all GreenLatinos on the front lines of coastal areas, ocean and public land defense. We are here to amplify your stories–stories of honoring, protecting, and restoring America’s open lands and ocean. Through our community’s experiences, we wish to reify the character and culture which defines the proper protection of our communities, oceans, and public landscapes.
87% of Latino/a/x voters support a national goal of protecting 30% of America’s land and water by 2030. Our cultures are rooted in the soil, bodies of water, plants, animals, and fungi that come from America’s lands, waters, and ocean. Somos hijos de la Tierra y el Mar. By protecting non-human species, water, and soil health, we protect our identities. GreenLatinos is here to ensure that these unique cultural assets to the Latino/a/x communities across the nation are properly protected.
Public Land and
Ocean Collective
The Public Land and Ocean Collective at GreenLatinos recognize the shared roots connecting land, ocean, and our gente. The Collective focuses on the current issues and opportunities in federally administered lands and oceans.
We seek to: ensure that federal marine and land areas are recognized as a solution to the climate crisis; advocate for issues that increase equitable access to public land and coastal areas; address the biodiversity crisis and reframe our natural resources as relatives and kin, while humanizing the people of the past; ensure that Latino/a/x communities feel welcome outside; and ensure that Latinos/as/x find their own history and heritage reflected in the stories told, places protected or people working in the outdoors.
The collective focuses on these efforts through sharing information and resources; uplifting and learning from our Latino/a/x experts and leaders; and taking direct, intentional, and meaningful action to ensure members’ solutions, questions, concerns, and stories are heard throughout the greater conservation community.
GreenLatinos hosts Public Lands and Ocean Collective meetups at least once every two months and is consistently working to identify new ways to empower our culture and communities of color in the public land and marine conservation spaces.
recent Achievements
Providing leadership for the Next 100 Coalition, America the Beautiful Coalition, and the Ocean Equity Collective.
GreenLatinos helped gather more than 116,000 petition signatures on a letter for the Biden Administration calling for the designation to executively designate Caster Range National Monument in Texas.
We continue to advocate for investment and implementation of those investments into historically overlooked communities.
Cultivating powerful relationships with Latino/a/x congressional members and staffers.
We continue to advocate for the phase out of single-use plastics and access to clean water infrastructure in our National Parks.
We continue to lead progressive public land and marine conservation issues that ensure our Latino/a/x and stories are told and recognized.