Building Relationships for Tribal Adaptation Planning: A Needs Assessment for Washington and Oregon Coastal Tribes

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Dates: June 03, 2024 9:00am to 10:00am

The Liaisons in the Pacific Northwest, Amelia Marchand and Kylie Avery, partnered with the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group (UW CIG) and Washington Sea Grant to identify unmet climate adaptation needs and priorities of Coastal Tribes in Washington and Oregon. The Northwest Climate Liaisons were able to nurture a successful partnership for climate adaptation planning by emphasizing the following points:

• Designing Listening Sessions which integrated and centered principles of free, prior, and informed consent and ensuring the confidentiality of participants were of high priority.
• Agreeing upon observation protocols for the sessions helped the team be mindful of emotional burdens and vulnerabilities which may be released during participant discussion.
• Implementing the principle of reciprocity, the project team intentionally secured honoraria in the project budget to compensate the participants for their time, experience, and perspectives shared during the sessions.
• Incorporating input and guidance from the team’s Tribal Advisory Group, which was composed of the Tribal Nations within the project area, was valuable to implementing successful Listening Session strategies.
• Holding in-person sessions at significant and trusted intertribal events, like the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians’ Conventions and National Tribal Leaders Climate Summit, helped leverage the time and availability of participants, while the opportunity for virtual sessions proved a convenient way to integrate comments from participants with pressed schedules.

The team was also successful in holding an in-person 1:1 Tribal Listening Session, which resulted with significant participation and input from Tribal staff and community members. A total of six Listening Sessions (in-person and virtual) were held during 2023, with over 22 Tribes participating in the process.

As of this writing, the team is currently composing the draft assessment, which will be fact-checked by participants and reviewed by Tribal Nations within the project area prior to release. The final assessment reflecting the needs and priorities of Washington and Oregon Coastal Tribes will be made publicly available in early 2024.

Photograph of a beach located within the study area of the needs assessment courtesy of Kylie Avery.