Tribes, Climate Change and Solutions

In North America, Tribes own 95 million acres of natural-resource rich land and have thousands of years of experience adapting to changes in the landscape and climate. Remarkably, North American Tribes have also experienced disproprtionate environmental and economic impacts due to climate change. With valuable natural resources and knowledge, Tribes are poised to share experiences, discuss, and find collaborative solutions that will limit these impacts.

The National Wildlife Federation’s Tribal Lands Conservation Program is working with tribal partners to collaborate on climate change solutions. Our partnerships with tribes on climate change include meetings and workshops, policy development, natural resource management planning and monitoring, and the formation of an Intertribal Climate Coalition.

The goal of these efforts is to provide a forum for Tribes to share first-hand on-the-ground accounts of climate change and its impacts on their economic, natural, and cultural resources while discussing and catalyzing solutions such as renewable energy projects, energy efficiency, and carbon sequestration. These efforts further aim to ensure that tribes have a “seat at the table” in policy decisions and dialogue about global warming, and that tribal interests and rights are included in decisions made and action taken to combat global warming. In addition, these partnerships are an effort to look ahead to innovative solutions to global climate change in the future, while preserving valuable Tribal cultural and natural resources that have existed for many generations.

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