--- title: 'Aulani Wilhelm: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 description: Find out why 'Aulani Wilhelm is on TIME's 2025 list of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action. canonical: https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326594/aulani-wilhelm/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-10-30T11:30:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T01:01:40.653Z article:section: Climate og:title: 'Aulani Wilhelm: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 og:description: Find out why 'Aulani Wilhelm is on TIME's 2025 list of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action. og:url: https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326594/aulani-wilhelm/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt63e551ee23c668bc/6998caf4f1b0821af16f1cd5/Defenders-Aulani-Wilhelm.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Aulani Wilhelm: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Aulani Wilhelm: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 twitter:description: Find out why 'Aulani Wilhelm is on TIME's 2025 list of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt63e551ee23c668bc/6998caf4f1b0821af16f1cd5/Defenders-Aulani-Wilhelm.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 30, 2025 # 'Aulani Wilhelm CEO, Nia Tero by [Jessica Bernhard](https://time.com/author/jessica-bernhard/) ## Jessica Bernhard  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Courtesy Photo) Indigenous groups play an essential role in safeguarding the planet’s remaining biodiversity, [according to a United Nations report](https://social.desa.un.org/publications/state-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples-volume-vi-climate-crisis). And yet, [these communities](https://time.com/6983186/indigenous-peoples-climate/) receive less than 1% of international climate funding. ‘Aulani Wilhelm leads [Nia Tero](https://www.niatero.org/), a Seattle-based nonprofit that supports Indigenous peoples’ guardianship of ecosystems. Since becoming the organization’s first Indigenous CEO in January, she has grown the nonprofit to become one of the largest supporters of Indigenous groups; earlier this year, Nia Tero hit a milestone of awarding[ more than $100 million](https://www.niatero.org/donate) in grants since its inception in 2017\. The group has [supported](https://d2yaihrer0xtrn.cloudfront.net/downloads/NiaTero-2024-AnnualReport-Download-EN.pdf) 274 Indigenous peoples across more than 300 million acres of critical ecosystems. Wilhelm, who was born and raised in the Hawaiian Islands, spoke about the role that Indigenous communities play in protecting ocean ecosystems at the United Nations Ocean Conference in June. “Protection is not a single act,” she [said](https://www.facebook.com/niatero/posts/among-the-conversations-at-the-united-nations-ocean-conference-our-ceo-aulani-wi/1042146448010231/?%5Frdr). “It occurs over time and is driven by people and communities who care, who name places and maintain intergenerational relationships with them.” Wilhelm formerly served as the White House assistant director for ocean conservation, climate, and equity from February 2022 to September 2023\. Prior to that, she was the senior vice president for oceans at Conservation International, where she co-led the Blue Nature Alliance, a partnership to conserve nearly 7 million square miles of ocean. Wilhelm answered TIME’s survey on the state of the climate movement: **What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government, needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda?** Simply put, we all need to stand behind the oldest, best proven protectors of the natural world: Indigenous guardians. As the world warms and climate impacts spread across the planet, the places that defy the odds are those where Indigenous Peoples still have the agency and means to protect their homelands. This is not by chance—it is because these lands and waters are in the hands of communities who know and embrace their responsibility to care for nature. Here’s just one example from our perspective as one of the world’s largest funders and technical partners of Indigenous Peoples: at Nia Tero, across the 130 million hectares \[more than 321 million acres\] where we have supported Indigenous Peoples’ guardianship, the rate of deforestation is four times lower than immediate surrounding areas. And when those lands are directly under threat, deforestation is at least 16 times lower than surrounding forests. Why? Because they are being actively defended by Indigenous guardians, who are defending their way of life and our ability to draw breathable air into our lungs. The rate of deforestation with or without Indigenous Peoples’ guardianship, when viewed in a global context, presents two starkly different futures. Only one of them has a world that can sustain humanity’s needs. **What gives you hope about the future of the planet?** Lots of people talk about hope as if it will enable solutions and without it, we are doomed. But I don’t think about hope that way. Hope helps me get up in the morning and fight another day but hope alone is not enough. If we merely use hope to distract us while we wait for someone to deliver solutions, then we—and that hope—are part of the problem. We were smart enough as a species to get ourselves into this mess and we are smart enough to get ourselves out of it too. That is if we choose to, and if we act quickly because we are running out of time. Let’s build strategies that activate human ingenuity and agency and stop hoping and relying on others to act responsibly on our behalf. There are lots of solutions big and small that if combined can add up to impact. We each have agency as consumers, family members, neighbors, voters, and in all our roles. It’s not too late, but every day we hesitate to act, the job gets harder. **If you could stand up and talk to world leaders at the next COP, what would you say?** We live on an ocean planet. The ocean is the source of all life. Accounting for over 70% of the world’s surface, the ocean is humanity’s largest shared resource, and it drives all earth’s systems. The ocean’s decline is now driving the climate change impacts we are all acutely experiencing across the globe. Therefore, if we want to stabilize the planet, we need to stabilize the ocean. To combat climate change, it’s clear that we must control the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We must also stop increasing pressure on the ocean from development, runoff, and land-based pollution; unsustainable fishing practices and subsidies; and destruction of habitat including the seabed. The math is clear. We are—knowingly—on a path that ends with our own destruction. To change course, we must invest in the oldest, best-proven strategy to protect the natural world: Indigenous Peoples’ Guardianship. Roughly half of the world’s healthiest ecosystems are in the hands of Indigenous Peoples who live in close relationship to their lands and waters. This can expand with sufficient funding and policy changes that match the potential of Indigenous Peoples’ Guardianship. Efforts like the Tropical Forests Forever Facility’s $125 billion funding goal, and as part of that, President Lula’s recent commitment of $1 billion toward it. Together, government and civil society can unlock the potential of Indigenous Peoples’ Guardianship to do more than slow the loss of the natural world. 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