First Nations is helping develop new pathways to grow and sustain Native stewardship of land through greater financial investment.
Funding support for land return remains a significant issue in Native communities. Tribes have been predominantly excluded from western systems for conservation funding, despite the disproportionate environmental impacts they experience. This systematic underinvestment by western conservation frameworks perpetuates environmental, social, and economic inequities.
New frameworks are needed to support equitable funding access and investment for Tribes to restore their adaptive capacity and traditional stewardship practices across ecosystems, which has become increasingly urgent due to climate change. As Tribes confront this inequitable distribution of and access to financial resources, there are opportunities to modify finance mechanisms – and create new ones – that invest in tribal capacity and stewardship, providing benefits to tribal communities and society at large.
In the spirit of reciprocity, Native stewardship of land cultivates carbon sequestration and biodiversity, and the revenue generated can be directly invested back into the community-led stewardship of the land, which will to have net-positive impact on carbon and biodiversity.
Through this project, First Nations will help retool two key conservation frameworks – carbon and biodiversity crediting – to better align with tribal values, priorities, and Tribal Sovereignty and ensure direct investment in Native-led stewardship. A new culturally relevant model for carbon and biodiversity crediting will be designed. Further, research and planning, in partnership with tribal and community partners, as well as implementing and evaluating pilot projects, will establish a strong foundation for scaling these opportunities.
Check back for updates as this project evolves.
This project is made possible through funding from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.
This project will help create economic opportunities on Moloka‘i by providing a permanent land base for community-driven initiatives such as renewable energy, a community food hub, and a forest economy.
Our project will support developing an understanding of carbon, biodiversity and other novel stewardship finance schemes, in order to help the Wabanaki Commission develop culturally relevant frameworks and data sovereignty tools.
Our program will establish a Tribally-led biodiversity crediting framework using eDNA tools to monitor and protect species across the Chugach region, aligning Indigenous values with emerging markets to support long-term stewardship, climate resilience, and sustainable Tribal economic opportunities.
WRTBI's Buffalo Biodiversity Crediting Program will support the planning and development of our bio crediting program, which will increase economic, environmental, and community health, along with diversifying our funding streams for the nonprofit.
Our project will support the development program capacity to monitor biodiversity and carbon hemiboreal forests in the 1836 Treaty Ceded Territory with a focus on Sault Tribe's Shingle Bay Preserve as a demonstration site
Our project will support the development of a new fund for land re-matriation that can be accessed by our Tribal Nation members to re-acquire and protect their ancestral lands.
Our project will support the planning and development of our land return biocultural crediting project. This project will create a pathway for tribes and ethical investors to partner in the return of Blackfeet lands for a sustainable effort at land, culture, language, and Bison rematriation.