Native Communities and Climate Change

Guidelines for Considering Traditional Knowledges in Climate Change Initiatives

Victoria Sweet1 Comment

The Guidelines for Considering Traditional Knowledges in Climate Change Initiatives is available for download here.

This publication is intended to be an informational resource for tribes, agencies, and organizations across the U.S.

About the Guidelines:

The Third National Climate Assessment issued in May 2014 contained a chapter dedicated to the impact of climate change on tribal peoples. In light of the increasing recognition of the significance of traditional knowledges (TKs) in relation to climate change, a self-organized, informal group of indigenous persons, staff of indigenous governments and organizations, and experts with experience working with issues concerning traditional knowledges (The Climate and Traditional Knowledges Workgroup – CTKW), felt compelled to develop a framework to increase understanding of issues relating to access and protection of TKs in climate initiatives and interactions between holders of TKs and non-tribal partners. The Guidelines were originally developed to inform the Department of Interior’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science (ACCCNRS) in May 2014.

Native Village of Kivalina Opening Appellate Brief in Climate Change Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here:

Kivalina Opening Brief

And:

Law Professors Amicus Brief

Sarah Krakoff on American Indians and Climate Change

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Sarah Krakoff has published “American Indians, Climate Change, and Ethics for a Warming World” in the Denver University Law Review.

From the introduction:

American Indian tribes and people have contributed very little to the causes of global warming, yet for geographic, cultural, and demographic reasons, they stand to suffer disproportionately from global warming’s negative effects. A recent study, Native Communities and Climate Change, prepared by the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado Law School, documents that these effects include, among others, threats to traditional hunting and gathering, destruction of tribal villages in Alaska, increased pressure on tribal reserved rights to water in the arid Southwest, and inundation of reservation lands in Florida. The disproportion between tribal contributions to global warming and the negative impacts on tribes qualifies this as an environmental justice issue. As the Native Communities and Climate Change Report suggests, a complex of legal rights, in conjunction with Congress’s moral obligation to tribes, provides the foundation and incentive for the federal government to take action to address these impacts.