Semilla Project

Background

The Semilla Project is the nonprofit branch of Semilla Strategies. ¹ Semilla Strategies is a for-profit consulting firm that works with left-of-center advocacy campaigns. It advertises that organizations should utilize its services because it represents ethnic minorities and claims left-wing campaigns must work in favor of ethnic minorities. ²

The Semilla Project has programs for ethnic minorities and ethnic-minority women to train them to organize far-left political campaigns. It states that it specifically trains ethnic-minority women because it argues they are most effective at “dismantling” the so-called “oppressive capitalist systems” controlling the environment, water, land, and food. ¹

Programs

The Semilla Project has the “SemiYA!- Youth Activation” initiative through its Outdoors, Land Based Learning and Wellness program that takes ethnic-minority youths on hikes and other outdoor adventures who in its view might not otherwise engage in such activities, using the opportunities to introduce them to topics such as conservation. ³ The program also trains its participants to engage in policy advocacy at the local and state level. ¹

Re/Generation is the Semilla Project’s program that advocates for environmentalist policies that would benefit the economies of ethnic-minority communities. ¹

The Semilla Project’s COsecha Forward program is led by ethnic-minority women who host an annual cohort to identify leaders to appoint to run campaigns and endorse for public office. The cohort is stated to include teachers, campaign organizers, “curriculum developers and strategist(s).” ¹

Funding

In August 2022, it was announced the Semilla Project was awarded a $20,000 grant from the state of New Mexico as part of $800,000 from New Mexico’s Outdoor Equity Fund, which was created in 2020. Josue De Luna Navarro of the Semilla Project stated that the grant money would be used towards its youth programs to fund outdoor trips. ⁴

Leadership

Josue De Luna Navarro is the Semilla Project’s land based and outdoor director and is listed as the Climate Policy Innovator for Semilla Strategies. ^{3 5} He previously worked as a New Mexico Fellow for Institute for Policy Studies and as program director for United We Dream. De Luna Navarro is also the co-founder of New Mexico Dream Team, a left-of-center organization that advocates for immigrant and LGBTQ issues. ^{6 7}

In a January 2023 op-ed, De Luna Navarro wrote that New Mexico’s Outdoor Equity Fund, which gave grants to the Semilla Project and like-minded organizations, should become a permanent program, claiming that public funding of so-called “outdoor equity” groups will increase conservation efforts and environmentalist policy advocacy. ³