Bill Gates and team may be the State of Washington’s most celebrated entity to embrace the seemingly intractable crisis of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, but there are others in that region making less news but taking equally important strides in the battle to tackle global warming. That would be the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in a northeastern portion of the state.
In an effort to demonstrate effective greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategies on tribal lands in the U.S. the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation headquartered in Coulee Dam, near Spokane, Washington, recently partnered with carbon finance advisory firm EcoAnalytics LLC of San Francisco, the Finite Carbon Corporation of Wayne Pennsylvania, and the Van Ness Feldman law firm which specializes in, among other things, environmental projects throughout the U.S. and has a unique tribal practice. With a $1.226 million Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) award, and matching funds, the partnership hopes to show that previous barriers to entry in environmental markets encountered by the hundreds of Federally recognized tribes and bands in the U.S. can be surmounted.
If the new management systems in place prove effective, this landmark initiative could become a welcome template for countless other public-private partnerships aimed at lowering America’s carbon footprint.
Native American tribal lands, to date, have not been included in the boom in new forest carbon offset endeavors for three primary reasons. First, at the state and federal levels, inconsistent climate change policies have emerged due to issues around sovereignty. Second, technical and legal issues exist in contracting a site-specific project on tribal lands. Third, there has been no clear route to various markets for tribal forest carbon projects and tribes have not been a part of stakeholder discussions.
With the help of this funding, “This project will demonstrate and adapt innovative (GHG) emission mitigation strategies and management systems to help create and monetize forest carbon offsets on tribal lands across the United States. This award is a milestone leading the way toward adapting approved and implemented forest carbon methodologies and protocols addressing issues involving tribal sovereignty,” said Gene Nicholson, Chairman of the Board of The Colville Tribal Enterprise Corp (CTEC), in a June 21st, 2011 press release from the four partners.
California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB-32), the nation’s most comprehensive greenhouse gas GHG cap-and-trade program at the state level, is scheduled to come into effect in 2013 after a one-year delay, but this state program does not include the participation of tribes. The new Colville initiative hopes to change that, both in the state of Washington, and with any luck, throughout America.
Any project that can lead the way for similar involvement by the more than 4 million Native Americans would appear to be a brilliant stroke.
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation represent Native peoples and they offer an ideal test case to pilot a forest carbon offset project. The Colville Reservation has some of the highest contiguous forest cover of any U.S. tribe in the lower 48 States and has an established forest management plan that thus creates a clear baseline for managing forest carbon stocks that can be used for quantifying emissions in a scientifically defensible way.
In relating the Colville project to the new California legislation, Tiffany Potter of EcoAnalytics writes, “Market pundits feel that California’s demand for all types of offsets will exceed supply. Opening up tribal lands to be able to participate in a cap-and-trade program especially through forestry could help supply meet demand, provide local jobs, and create sustainable, long term revenue for tribes across the country.”
In addition, “by adapting approved forest carbon methodologies and protocols suitable for laws that support tribal sovereignty, we have the potential to create atmospheric and environmental benefits, while also generating a financial return for all tribes,” said Ken Stanger, Chairman of Colville Tribal Federal Corporation (CTFC).
This project also importantly fills a critical gap. The U.S. Departments of Interior and Agriculture which are mandated to work responsibly and creatively with American Indians, Alaska Natives, and tribal resources, now have a new-found opportunity that can help facilitate consistent public and private market based incentives. Finite Carbon will provide data concerning carbon quantification and valuations of sequestered emissions, while Van Ness Feldman will lend its legal expertise to the whole process.
This project was funded by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) which is focused upon funding “innovative, on-the-ground conservation technologies and approaches, with the eventual goal of wide-scale adoption to address water quality and quantity, air quality and energy conservation and environmental markets among other natural resource issues.” Forty-three Conservation Innovation Grant proposals were received from 28 states. The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Tribal Enterprise Corporation Reservation initiative received one of the highest amounts awarded during this round of grant-making.
If the dollar amount awarded seems somewhat shy of serious money, it’s important to note that of the total dollar figures in the UN and World Bank-backed REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), which has global agreements with nearly 30 countries, less than $150 million has been committed thus far (though less than $100 million disbursed), and over 80% of that amount has come from one nation, Norway. But, as Mark Rowe describes in his piece "REDD+ or dead?" the Norwegian Government has also committed US$1 billion on the basis of a two-year Indonesian moratorium on any for-profit timber extraction. The money to help save the planet is there. It’s the mechanisms and agreements that have thus far proved frustratingly elusive.
Fast growing species like eucalyptus and Scottish pine – among many – are no substitute for primary canopy that guarantees a level of native biodiversity lacking from many current post-Kyoto Protocol schemes. Moreover, between 2000 and 2010, it is estimated that more than 52 million hectares of forest were lost worldwide (ten Costa Ricas). It is also widely recognized that deforestation at all levels exerts one of the most serious and long-lasting impacts on climate change and the irretrievable loss of biodiversity.
By embracing North American tribal sovereignties in the process of reducing emissions, there is the inherent promise of traditional tribal conservation measures being implemented, as well. That would be good news for Americans, and for the planet.
