Most people think of climate change as an enormous issue that can only be addressed on a global level. How can small grants of $500 or even $5,000 make a difference to such a monumental challenge?
We believe local action through small grants can make a big difference. Since 2000, Greengrants has given well over $1 million dollars to hundreds of organizations working on climate change in every corner of the globe. As the stories of these groups indicate, although the issue of climate change is global, the methods of attacking it are as unique as the peoples and local environments that it will so drastically affect. We believe, as is the case with nearly every other environmental issue, that long-lasting solutions will have to include those who will be most affected. We hope you are inspired, as we are, by their efforts. To find out about what groups are doing in other areas of the world, click here.___________________________________
Grassy Narrow First Nation, Canada
Trees and other plant life actively remove carbon dioxide during photosynthesis; subsequently, deforestation has been credited as one of the major contributors to the greenhouse effect. Greengrants supports grantees working to combat deforestation and protect the carbon sink service that healthy forests provide for our atmosphere.
The Ojibway people have resided in the same area of northern Ontario for thousands of years. Now the very forests that have sustained them are facing annihilation. Despite laws that require the government to protect the hunting and fishing rights of native peoples, clear cutting by international conglomerates on Ojibway land has proceeded unchecked.
Greengrants has made five grants to a number of community groups working on this issue including youth and women’s groups with an aim to protect 2,500 square miles of traditional forests, lakes, and rivers. These groups have used a wide range of strategies including organizing speaking tours for native groups to reach out to actors in political circles in Ontario, hosting regional gatherings of indigenous women and youth groups to plan and network, organizing blockades and protests, and suing the Canadian government for failing to protect their lands from unsustainable logging. Most recently, Greengrants made a grant to send a contingent from the Grassy Narrows community to the Poplar River First Nation (also in Canada) to learn about the forest management plan in place there which allows the nation to control a million acres and to explore a similar strategy for Grassy Narrows First Nation.