COVID-19 Environmental Justice Roundtables Series Summary and Policy Recommendations

Over the spring and summer of 2020, the National Wildlife Federation worked in collaboration with our national and local partners to hold a series of roundtable conversations. The roundtables gathered more than 124 frontline community leaders, elected officials, and other key experts and environmental justice stakeholders to discuss the impacts of the coronavirus on communities.

In addition to gaining valuable insights to help guide National Wildlife Federation involvement and policy advocacy, the roundtables served as a key platform for participants to build relationships and share resources.

Through these roundtables, we were able to gain a better understanding of the underlying issues that low-income communities and communities of color face and how the pandemic has made issues much more severe. Several intersectional themes arose through conversations, including recommendations and policies to further consider. We attempted to highlight and summarize themes, which in no way encompassed the full breadth of issues raised and ideas.

The roundtable series culminated in a National Townhall on Environmental Justice and Frontline Communities to dive deeper on the state of the environment in Black and brown America.

Now the National Wildlife Federation has worked innovatively with partners to highlight key policy recommendations in an attempt to address the COVID-19 public health crisis and environmental injustices. Our organization, along with national partners, has authored this comprehensive report to dive deeper on the issues raised and outlined a plan of action for policy advocacy and programming to address the needs of frontline communities.