“Today we celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day and with that, our culture and heritage,” Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) tweeted yesterday. We take a moment to honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2020 and thank Rep. Haaland for her leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives for advancing biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation legislations. The UNM Biodiversity Webinar Series—Fall 2020 with Senator Tom Udall serving as co-host is organized in partnership with Office of Rep. Deb Haaland.

SECOND WEBINAR VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/6zWPfo7QdL0

On Thursday, October 8, we hosted the second webinar of the series, “Flora, Fishes, and Fireflies: Assessing Species in Peril in New Mexico and Abroad,” which was co-presented by the New Mexico BioPark Society and the Species in Peril project at UNM. Three International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) scientists from Mexico and the United States, Kira Mileham, Sara Lewis, and Topiltzin Contreras-MacBeath engaged in conversation with moderator Clayton Meredith of New Mexico BioPark Society. We thank everyone who joined us live. You will find the video of the webinar on the Species in Peril website: https://speciesinperil.unm.edu/wp/unm-biodiversity-webinar-series-fall-2020-webinar-videos/.

The webinar happened in the midst of a mass bird die-off in New Mexico and the greater Southwest. On Sunday, the Albuquerque Journal published an op-ed “Bird die-offs highlight need to do more for local ecology,” by moderator Clayton Meredith of NM BioPark Society and Karen Waterfall of ABQ BioPark.

THIRD UNM BIODIVERSITY WEBINAR:

The UNM Biodiversity Webinar Series—Fall 2020 with Senator Tom Udall serving as co-host will present the third webinar titled “Indigenous Kinship and Multispecies Justice” on Thursday, November 19. The webinar will be co-presented by the Indigenous Design + Planning Institute at UNM (iD+Pi) and the Species in Peril project at UNM. The webinar will open with a welcome message from Senator Tom Udall. Three Indigenous conservationists from Canada and the United States, Norma Kassi, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and President Fawn Sharp will be in conversation with moderator Elspeth Iralu, Visiting Assistant Professor of Indigenous Planning at UNM.

The webinar promises to be a wondrous journey through multispecies cosmologies and how such knowledge may inform public policy. The webinar is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required. Please register here: https://unm.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_s7he_fOcTz-gtJe9cJ2GkA
 

We are also excited to share that the next issue of the Species in Peril e-letter vol. 1 no. 3 will focus exclusively on Indigenous knowledge and practices, and will include an original article by moderator of the upcoming webinar Elspeth Iralu; an interview Iralu is conducting with Indian anthropologist Dr. Dolly Kikon of the University of Melbourne; and other contributions. We are aiming to publish the e-letter in late November.
 

FOR NOW, OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE:
If you live in the United States and are eligible to vote—please vote!

Best wishes in this time of peril,

Subhankar Banerjee

Director and Founder, Species in Peril project at UNM