The Potential of National Parks and Protected Areas in the Anthropocene: Emerging Incubators of Environmental Justice and Co-stewardship Conservation

National parks are often praised as natural labs for physical science researchers and scholars. They are also cultural labs where ideas about public lands management, use, and access are reformulated and revised. In the Anthropocene, these sites hold special relevance. Within this context, parks can serve as active and evolving incubators of social and climate resilience guided by just conservation initiatives. Yet few studies have explored the new models of collaboration and partnerships between the U.S. National Park Service and Tribal Nations that seek to create co-stewardship conservation. This article addresses that gap with a qualitative and historical case study of Grand Canyon National Park. I argue that procedural environmental justice (EJ) is a key element to a more equitable distribution of use, access, and management of national parks. The findings of this research suggests that successful co-stewardship models should (1) honor traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), (2) recognize traditional homelands as contemporary places shaped by historic land and water dispossession, (3) restore use and access to traditional land and water, (4) build equitable co-stewardship partnerships with shared governance, and (5) establish pathways and career training for Native Americans and other historically excluded people as public lands managers. This article advances geographic insights gathered from national parks and protected areas research by highlighting approaches and analysis of EJ issues and discussing emerging practices and policy models that will be of interests to geographers from a range of subfields within the discipline as well as interdisciplinary environmental scholars and scientists.