Regionwide tribal coalition embraces Kyoto Protocol

PLEASANT POINT – Members of the United South and Eastern Tribes did something that the U.S. government has refused to do – endorsed the principles described in the Kyoto Protocol, tribal officials announced Wednesday.

That means 24 federally recognized tribes have agreed to embrace the international environmental treaty that the Bush administration has rejected.

The USET meeting was held in Verona, N.Y., earlier this month.

The tribes joined with mayors from more than 160 communities and 35 states who last year embraced the principles of the agreement. To date, more than 140 countries have ratified the treaty.

The agreement is a worldwide effort to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases.

Steve Crawford, the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s environmental director and chairman of USET’s Natural Resource Committee, said Wednesday that the United States makes up about 5 percent of the world’s population, but emits more than 25 percent of the global greenhouses gases. “And a lot of the greenhouses gases come from cars,” he said.

The tribes adopted a resolution that will be sent to U.S. congressional representatives in the various tribal districts. “We also sent a letter to the United Nations,” Crawford said, though they do not expect a response from the U.N.

All but a few scientists worldwide believe that in recent decades human activities particularly the increased burning of fossil fuels have caused something known as the “greenhouse effect” by which certain gases blanket the planet at unnatural levels, trapping solar radiation and causing the Earth’s temperatures to warm. On average, greenhouse gas levels and global temperatures have been on upward trends since the Industrial Revolution.

Opponents of Kyoto claim global warming has been greatly exaggerated and President Bush has argued that mandated reductions in emissions will harm the U.S. economy.

But the tribes want to do their part.

“Members of the tribes have over 500,000 acres in trust and fee lands in eastern and southern United States – more area than the state of Rhode Island,” Crawford said. “USET is gravely concerned about the amount of greenhouse gases the United States emits, and the lack of federal oversight and regulations in efforts to reduce these gases.”

Besides embracing Kyoto, the tribes are doing their part in reducing greenhouse gases by promoting and conducting sustainable forestry practices, promoting sustainable forms of agriculture and promoting and developing renewable energy.

“USET hopes that by [the organization’s endorsement of] the Kyoto Protocol principles, the U.S. federal government will be encouraged to do more to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released in the U.S.,” Crawford added.

And the tribes are doing more than just signing onto an agreement. They have to make changes themselves. “You have to reduce your own emissions or provide means to reduce greenhouse gases,” Crawford explained. “Tribes being the opposite of economic powerhouses … [means] what we can’t do is we can’t reduce the amount of emissions very well, but we can capture greenhouse gases.”

The Passamaquoddy Tribe plans to do just that through better forestry management. They own more than 140,000 acres in Maine. The tribe is made up of two reservations – at Indian Township near Princeton and at Pleasant Point near Eastport. The tribe plans to implement a long-range plan over the next few years.

“So with the 140,000 acres of forestry that we have we can reduce greenhouse gases,” he said, adding that other tribes, such as the Seminoles, with their holdings around the Everglades in Florida, can do a similar thing.

To do their part, the Passamaquoddy Tribe also is looking at both wind and tidal energy. Two years ago the tribe received a $140,000 grant to do a wind study near Cherryfield. “Actually it looks like the feasibility is promising for a wind farm and that would be in the 50- to 80-megawatt range,” he said.

And two weeks ago, the tribe armed with $97,000 of federal money kicked off a plan to look at a tidal power project. The tribe’s project is unrelated to other tidal projects that have been discussed in recent weeks.

The Pleasant Point reservation is located on a bay with some of the highest tides in the continental U.S. “We are going to put current meters at … three sites and we will monitor that for four months and decide on one site and put a pilot project in there. These are underwater turbines,” Crawford said. He expects that to happen this year.

Although Crawford was realistic and said that USET’s embracing the agreement wouldn’t change the world, he said philosophically it agrees with what the tribes believe – renewable energy and sustainable forestry management practices will make a difference.