With intention and respect, a key priority for this sanctuary is to provide meaningful opportunities for interested Tribes and Indigenous community members, including individuals with knowledge of Indigenous culture, history, and environment, to participate in collaborative co-stewardship of this special place. It is also NOAA’s intent for the sanctuary to highlight and honor the Indigenous cultural heritage of the first stewards of these lands and waters.

Co-stewardship refers to collaborative or cooperative arrangements between NOAA and Tribes related to shared interests in the sanctuary. Collaborative and cooperative arrangements can take a wide variety of forms, including but not limited to:

• Sharing technical expertise
• Sharing resources and capabilities of NOAA and Tribes through cooperative arrangements or other means to improve resource management and advance shared responsibilities and interests
• Including Indigenous Knowledge, experience, and perspectives into sanctuary management

In carrying out the management of this sanctuary, NOAA, through partnership and coordination with interested Tribes and Indigenous communities, intends to:

• Respect and honor the intent of the sanctuary nomination regarding Indigenous community involvement
• Adapt and improve collaboration over time through substantive, ongoing involvement
• Build on Indigenous Knowledge to help achieve shared marine conservation goals
• Provide for appropriate, substantive involvement of all interested local Indigenous community groups (federally and non-federally recognized local Tribes and Indigenous groups) in the ongoing stewardship of the sanctuary
• Inform and inspire others by serving as an example of effective Tribal and Indigenous community collaboration, consultation, and engagement in a national marine sanctuary

As informed and inspired by many meetings and conversations with local Tribes and Indigenous groups during the sanctuary designation process, NOAA intends to establish and implement a collaborative co-stewardship structure that includes:

1. An Intergovernmental Policy Council convening federally recognized Tribes, the state of California, and NOAA
2. A Sanctuary Advisory Council to include Indigenous Knowledge and Tribal government representation
3. An Indigenous Cultures Advisory Panel
4. Joint project partnership opportunities with culturally-serving nonprofit foundations
5. Honoring required government-to-government Tribal consultation processes, when needed, with the federally recognized Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians as well as engagements with other Indigenous groups under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act
6. Various sanctuary management activities to be handled by NOAA as part of its federal agency responsibilities and authorities under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act

For more information about the purpose and intent of these co-stewardship elements, see the Final Management Plan, particularly the Indigenous collaborative co-stewardship section within the introduction, as well as the Indigenous Cultural Heritage Action Plan.