Protections against public disclosure requirements otherwise applicable to federal agencies provide opportunities to preserve confidentiality of cultural knowledge in the co-management and co-stewardship context. Confidentiality of tribal knowledge allows tribal nations to engage co-management processes without fear that their own information could be used to undermine their cultural, historical, or legal interests in a particular co-management area. For instance, a tribal nation may need to share the location and cultural relevance of a particular resource in developing a co-management arrangement. The potential of public disclosure, then, poses a threat to preserving that cultural resource since any individual has the knowledge needed to obtain it. See Native Nations Law & Policy Center, The Need for Confidentiality with Tribal Cultural Resource Protection, UCLA (Dec. 2020). Though agencies must follow various confidentiality protections that provide exemptions to both NEPA and FOIA’s public disclosure provisions—see below—relevant scholarship provides additional footing to consider confidentiality beyond what applicable protections provide.
FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE (FWS)
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE (NPS)
FOREST SERVICE (FS)