CSKT to receive funds for their climate action project
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News from the Dept. of the Interior
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior recently announced that more than $120M from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will fund 146 projects to help Tribal communities plan for and implement projects to tackle severe climate-related environmental threats to their homelands.
This investment from the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and annual appropriations will help Tribes proactively plan for and adapt to these threats and safely relocate critical community infrastructure, where necessary. It is the largest amount of annual funding awarded to Tribes and Tribal organizations in the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Tribal Climate Annual Awards Program, with 102 Tribes and 9 Tribal organizations receiving funding.
“Indigenous communities are facing unique and intensifying climate-related challenges that pose an existential threat to Tribal economies, infrastructure, lives and livelihoods,” said Secretary Deb Haaland.
“By providing these resources to Tribes to plan and implement climate resilience programs in their own communities, we can better meet the needs of each community and allow them to incorporate Indigenous knowledge when addressing climate change,” said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland. “These resources will enable Tribes to protect their ability to exist in their homelands in the face of a changing climate.”
“The most severe impacts of climate change fall disproportionately on communities that are least able to prepare for and recover from them,” said White House Senior Advisor to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez.
The Tribal Climate Resilience Annual Awards Program supports both planning and implementation projects, including for climate adaptation planning, community-led relocation, managed and partial relocation, protect-in-place efforts, ocean and coastal management, and habitat restoration and adaptation.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe of the Flathead Reservation will be funded $250,000.
Shrinking my carbon footprint: A baseline for CSKT climate actions is the title of their project.
Project Description: The Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) “Shrinking My Carbon Footprint” (AKA “Shrinking Carbon”) project will kick off a cross-sector, intergenerational planning effort that will engage leaders from tribal departments, corporate and educational organizations, and tribal youth to establish a Carbon Footprint Baseline and prioritize actions for reducing climate pollution and enhancing climate resilience. CSKT’s Third CSKT Climate Change Strategic Plan (scheduled for release in fall of 2023) and the new Tribal Council climate change Resolution (passed in July 2023) provide the foundation for this project. The newly appointed CSKT Climate Coordinator will lead a series of reservation-wide tribal sector workshops to inventory greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ecosystem carbon stocks to establish a carbon footprint baseline and prioritize actions for CSKT to shrink its carbon footprint. Shrinking Carbon will also train a new generation of climate leaders through youth climate camps for high school students from Flathead Nation and Blackfeet Tribe, to learn about climate change, GHG emissions, and develop climate actions for their schools. These efforts will advance and support climate resilience on the Flathead Reservation and in surrounding communities.
