Barajas landed an internship designed for people of colour at the International Crane Foundation's headquarters in Baraboo, Wisconsin. / Photo: AP
“I always knew growing up I had an interest in wildlife and animals but didn't know the options I had," Barajas, 21, said. “I really just have a passion for the outdoors. I can't just be in an office all day. I need to be outside and doing things I think are valuable.”Environmental groups across the country have worked for the last two decades to introduce members of underrepresented populations like Barajas to the overwhelmingly white conservation world.
“All the environmental issues we’re facing are really big and we simply can’t face them all unless we have a lot of ideas at the table,” said Soumi Gaddameedi, a 22-year-old Indian American who works as a donor coordinator for the nonprofit group Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin. More than 80 percent of National Park Service employees are white, according to service data. A 2022 survey of the 40 largest non-government environmental organizations and foundations by Green 2.0, an organization advocating for minority inclusion in the environmental sector, found 60 percent of staff and almost 70 percent of organization heads identified as white.Sociologists offer a number of explanations for the lack of diversity in conservation ranks.
Black people made up about 9.5 percent of graduate students and only 6 percent of doctoral students. Native Americans made up less than 1percent of graduate and doctoral students in both fields.