"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."

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Michael Tobias: Native Americans Get Seat At Climate Table (Forbes 7/12)