While today is World Environment Day, at NatureServe we believe the environment deserves our attention every day. However, the issue at the forefront of our minds right now is racial justice and the Black Lives Matter movement. NatureServe stands in support with the global community working to fight against systemic racism and human injustice.
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. noted in 1967, “It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” This is true of all the people and organisms on earth.
Just as we know that sometimes the most underrepresented member of an ecosystem is the cornerstone of the community, the same is often true in human society. We cannot denigrate any one group of people without degrading society as a whole.
NatureServe will actively work to promote diversity in the conservation field while we continue to protect at-risk species and ecosystems.
Only by working to heal the injustices that are woven into our society can we grow together.
My sincerest regards,
Sean T. O'Brien
President & CEO, NatureServe