Title: Haudenosaunee environmental restoration
First published: 1995
Description: Janice Whitney Annunziata graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harper College (SUNY Binghamton) and received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School in 1980. After a decade in private law practice, Ms. Annunziata turned her attention to environmental degradation. In 1992, a delegation of Haudenosaunee delivered an address at the United Nations (UN) Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to bring attention not only to the environmental degradation impacting the Haudenosaunee, but to the seriousness of global pollution and its impacts on those yet to be born, the future generations. Shortly afterward, the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy authorized the formation of the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force (HETF), composed of delegates from each of the Haudenosaunee Nations, to address environmental degradation in Haudenosaunee communities. At the request of the Clan Mothers and Chiefs of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Ms Annunziata began working with the HETF to document and compile the culturally-appropriate environmental education, restoration, and environmental protection strategies of the Haudenosaunee. Nearly three years later, Ms Annunziata’s completed book, entitled Haudenosaunee Environmental Restoration: An Indigenous Strategy for Human Sustainability, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1995. Ms. Annunziata served as a member of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Working Committee, which sponsored the United Nations Summit of the Elders in July, 1995 where Ms. Annunziata and members of the HETF presented the indigenous Strategy to the United Nations and to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Ms Annunziata’s work was heralded and after her meeting with Vice President Al Gore in August, 2000, he wrote “ I am impressed with your hard work and commitment to the ideas contained in the material you provided to me. Please be assured that your suggestions will be considered as I work on related policies and programs.” Contact Janice at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janice-annunziata-a03b0011/.


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Subjects: HETF, Haudenosaunee, Environmental
People: Janice Whitney Annunziata
Time periods: 1992-2002