News & Events

Preserving Tribal Lands with Carbon Markets: National Indian Carbon Coalition (Podcast)

Protect, preserve, and create economic resources. This is the mission of the National Indian Carbon Coalition (NICC), which works with tribal members and leaders to find new opportunities for tribal land. NICC works with tribes to develop carbon sequestration projects, protect tribal natural resources, and generate revenue for land acquisition and community development.

Listen to Bryan Van Stippen, program director of NICC, describe how carbon markets can create new sources of revenue, preserve land ownership, and combat climate change on the 56.2 million acres of tribal land in the United States.

Bringing Agricultural Carbon Programs to Native American Farmers

The National Indian Carbon Coalition has been awarded a two-year grant from the USDA-NRCS Equity Conservation Cooperative Agreements program that will enable NICC and Carbon by Indigo to work together to support Native American farmers in carbon farming practices. NICC, in collaboration with Indigo, will use the funds to establish grazing and cropland demonstration sites with Native American producers that quantify the impact of different management strategies on soil organic carbon, and serve as educational sites for historically underserved producers.

Protecting Tribal Land, Preserving Natural Resources

Climate change is real. That’s not news to elders in Wisconsin’s Native American communities. They see it, they feel it, and they are taking action to deal with it. That was the message conveyed by NICC Program Director Bryan Van Stippen in a recent article published in the “Wisconsin People & Ideas” magazine published by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

Money Growing on Trees

From Native Science Report – Sept. 20, 2022

While economists see forest value unleashed by extracting timber or clearing the land for development, Native nations generally practice a more sustainable forest management. They value their forests as cultural and ecological sites that provide traditional plants and fuelwood while protecting wildlife and water. Now this more sustainable approach is starting to pay off in dollars, as more tribal nations sign on to gain income from the growing carbon market, including the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in northern Michigan.