Native Communities & Climate Change: Legal and Policy
Approaches to Protect Tribal Legal Rights
Natural Resource Law Center, University of Colorado, Turner Foundation, WWA

Executive Summary pdf 

Full Report Available at NRLC website: http://www.colorado.edu/Law/centers/nrlc/

Overview
The WWA has contributed to this report, prepared primarily by the University of Colorado Law School (Natural Resources Law Center), examining a diversity of climate change impacts on tribes, as well as how tribes might address these issues through legal and policy measures.  The study focuses on 4 regional case studies-Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and Florida-to discuss how the effects of climate change impacts tribal resources, communities and activities differently in each of these areas, as well as legal and policy measures that tribes might employ to protect their legal rights in the absence of federal action. The penultimate draft of the report was released for review through a national database of American Indian Tribes in February 2007. Final publication is anticipated for summer 2007.

Presentations
National Congress of American Indians, Mid-Year Session, Anchorage, Alaska, June 13-16, 2007

Sponsers
The Turner Foundation
Natural Resource Law Center, University of Colorado
The Western Water Assessment