SEATTLE (AP) — Coastal tribes in the Pacific Northwest experience some of the most severe effects of climate change — from rising seas to severe heat — but face an array of bureaucratic barriers to access government funds meant to help them adapt, a report released Monday found.
The tribes are leaders in combatting climate change in their region, but as they seek money for specific projects to address its repercussions, such as relocating a village threatened by rising waters, they often can’t provide the matching funds that many grants require or the necessary staff or struggle with stringent application requirements, according to the report by the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative. If they do get funding, it’s often a small amount that can only be used for very specific projects when this work is typically much more holistic, the report found.
“Trying to do projects by piecing together grants that all have different requirements and different strings attached, without staff capacity is a challenge,” Robert Knapp, environmental planning manager at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in northwest Washington, said in the report.