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About Us

Conservation Voters New Mexico

Dedicated to connecting New Mexicans to their political power to protect our air, land, water, wildlife, and resilient communities.

Chamisa Wilderness Study Area

With a diversity of vegetation and landforms, these lands support large numbers of elk, coyote, mule deer, and Merriam’s turkey. Photo: Bob Wick

Our Mission + Vision

Conservation Voters New Mexico is a statewide, nonpartisan nonprofit committed to connecting the people of New Mexico to their political power to protect our air, land and water for a healthy Land of Enchantment. We do this by mobilizing voters, winning elections, holding elected officials accountable and advancing responsible public policies.

Our vision is for New Mexicans to thrive in just, resilient communities where our conservation and cultural values guide our decision-makers and public policies.

Our Equity Commitments 

CVNM is committed to identifying, exploring, and challenging factors of inequity and racism and their impacts on our organization, our systems, our staff, and the communities we serve. We are dedicated to examining ourselves and the systems in which we operate. In doing so, we work to dismantle inequity and embed diversity into everything we do. If you’d like to learn more about our commitment to equity, click here.

Protecting NM for Future Generations

As New Mexicans, our lives are inextricably linked to the air, land and water in our Land of Enchantment – and how we treat these resources directly impacts our health and livelihood. 

Relying on oil, coal and natural gas for the bulk of our energy needs is a losing proposition. Recent fracking booms, including the one in the Permian basin, are not sustainable and their boom-and-bust cycles create havoc for state and local budget planning. Independent data has shown that methane emissions are likely much higher than industry and federal government monitoring suggest and oil and gas facilities also emit harmful ozone and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs), some of which are known carcinogens.

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Priority

Democracy

Effective government (or “good government”) refers to the way in which elected officials exercise their political authority to serve their constituencies. Good governance, with respect to the environment, requires that decisions are made and implemented using legitimate (legal), transparent, participatory, responsive and equitable processes to achieve effective policies that protect New Mexico’s communities and natural resources.

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A strong sense of place and reliance on the land that sustains us is a common thread that unites us as New Mexicans. From the forests and mesas that catch rain and snow to feed our rivers, to the vibrant ecosystems that New Mexicans farm, hunt, fish, hike and bike, our relationship to the land, water and wildlife is central to our quality of life and deep cultural diversity.

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Significant amounts of land remain in a natural condition in New Mexico, creating opportunities to protect those places for future generations. At the same time, due to relaxed mining and oil and gas leasing regulations, New Mexico’s public lands have become a haven for extractive industries seeking to mine and refine natural resources and minerals. These activities degrade the water and air, making other uses impossible without expensive cleanup and remediation.

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Our Scope of Work 

We value responsible stewardship of our water, our land and our natural resources. We believe that ecological health and social equity among New Mexico’s diverse and culturally rich communities protects our cherished quality of life. We are dedicated to ensuring democratic accountability and access for all New Mexicans to participate in the political process. We support policies and lawmakers that promote long-term ecological and economic sustainability. This is our responsibility to future generations.

A Transparent Legislative Process

New Mexico’s state administration and legislature have a monumental impact on the laws that protect – or harm – our communities, and its process is opaque. CVNM has a dedicated team of advocates who engage full-time in the legislative session, allowing us to serve as a bridge between the public and policy process. We provide information on bills moving through the legislature, facilitate ways the public can engage with their decision-makers, and ensure that our elected officials understand and prioritize the conservation values of all New Mexicans. We also analyze, track, and advocate on bills that impact our air, land, water, wildlife, and communities. Summaries of each bill we take a position on are published in our annual legislative agenda, which is made public to all New Mexicans and state legislators.

Civic Engagement

We engage the public in the policymaking process, from directly shaping solutions to advocating for passage. Robust civic engagement is essential for strong and equitable policy outcomes, and decision-makers across the state need to hear from the public that protecting the environment is a clear priority. We facilitate public input by resourcing community members or organizations to support their engagement or address obstacles to participation, organizing meetings between activists and state leaders, and amplifying community stories or calls to action shared at the local level. 

Ensuring Democratic Accountability

Who we elect matters. CVNM helps to identify, recruit, support, and endorse pro-conservation candidates so voters can elect decision-makers who will prioritize pro-conservation policy. We advocate for more equitable and accessible decision-making processes and amplify the voices of the most impacted communities at the Capitol.  We also work to ensure voters have equitable access to the polls, and know how to exercise their right to vote. We shine light on which elected officials will support action on climate and and other conservation issues, and publish our annual Conservation Scorecard so that the public can better understand how their elected officials are voting on these critical issues.

Collaborating with partners

CVNM partners closely with other nonprofits, community organizations and leaders, and decision-makers to design, advocate for, and implement policy solutions that address some of the biggest environmental threats of our lifetime, including climate change. This work is founded in collaboration with organizations that represent or are led by those most impacted by climate pollution, especially rural and communities of color, as early in the legislative process as possible to ensure their needs and solutions are incorporated in legislation. In coalition together, we identify and shape legislative or administrative solutions to environmental injustice across the state.

Theory of Change

Our democracy is strongest when all voices are engaged in the process

For too long, the communities that have historically borne the brunt of extractive industry, pollution, and climate change have been excluded from the policy process. Whether trying to exercise the right to vote, running for office, shaping policy, advocating for change, or other forms of civic engagement, environmental racism and systemic oppression have pushed low income and Black, Indigenous, Latine and other communities of color out of decision-making spaces. This has resulted in devastating policy decisions that have historically favored big polluters over people, and deeply harmed underrepresented communities. 

CVNM believes that our democracy and environmental policy are strongest when all voices – especially those most impacted by policy and rulemaking – are engaged in the process. CVNM is viewed as the political arm of the environmental movement in New Mexico, and because the primary outcomes of our work result in policy change, it is essential that we engage the public, especially low-income and people of color communities, in the policymaking process.

Our Family of Organizations

Advocating for ecological health and social equity.

The CVNM Family of Organizations works together to achieve our collective vision: for New Mexicans to thrive in just, resilient communities where our conservation and cultural values guide our decision-makers and public policies. 

CVNM Education Fund

Conservation Voters New Mexico Education Fund is an organization separate from the Conservation Voters New Mexico (CVNM), with its own mission, programs and board of directors.

CVNM Education Fund was created in 1999 to engage the people of New Mexico in our long-standing shared values of protecting our air, land, water and the health of our communities. We do this by mobilizing people to advocate on policy, enhancing the voting process, encouraging people to vote, cultivating conservation leaders and amplifying the voices of those most affected.

CVNM Action Fund

Conservation Voters New Mexico Action Fund is a nonpartisan coordinated political action committee that works to elect pro-environment candidates and to defeat anti-environment candidates at the state level up to the amount allowed by New Mexico campaign finance laws. CVNM Action Fund was created in 2004.

CVNM Verde Voters Fund

CVNM Verde Voters Fund is an independent expenditure political action committee administrated by CVNM that works to elect pro-conservation candidates by directly contacting voters through the mail, phone, at the door and in the media.

Through our work with both CVNM Action Fund and CVNM Verde Voters Fund, we let voters know that—for New Mexico’s air, land, water and communities—who we elect matters.

Coal Seller in Gallup
Working for New Mexicans

Meet our Team

The CVNM team works hard to bring New Mexicans together, whether it is on advising on policy, hosting town halls, or encouraging people to use their political voice. Meet the people from across the state who advocate for our collective future.

Donate

Help us to build a thriving, just and resilient New Mexico.

By donating to CVNM, you help mobilize voters, win elections, hold elected officials accountable and advance responsible public policies in our state.