Module 1: Climate Change & Natural Climate Solutions
1.1 Climate Change & First Nations Peoples
Since time immemorial, the relationships that First Nations have had with their environments sustained them and informed their cultures and ways of living. First Nations communities, who live in close relationship to the land and waters, are often the first to experience the impacts of climate change, which affects heritage, culture, and ways of life.
The process of colonization has displaced First Nations from their traditional territories, disrupted their land practices, and affected their relationship with Mother Earth, yet First Nations continue to be leaders in stewarding land and biodiversity. Colonization has made us all dependent on a social and economic system that relies on the exploitation of nature.
Climate change is a direct outcome of a worldview that reduces Earth to a set of resources to be exploited without accountability. For decades, Indigenous Peoples have raised concerns about environmental changes that diverged from patterns consistent with the knowledge passed down from prior generations.
Watch our video explainer below - “Climate Change Impacts on First Nations” produced by BCAFN.
1.2 Atmosphere and Climate
The Greenhouse Effect
The atmosphere is like a protective blanket around earth. It is made up of gases including carbon dioxide gas (CO₂) methane gas, nitrous oxide gas and water vapour, which trap heat like a greenhouse does. It keeps earth within a livable range of temperatures, ensuring habitability for humans and other life.
For this reason, these gases are referred to as ‘greenhouse gases’ or ‘GHGs’. We are adapted to a certain concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere. CO₂ is the main GHG.
Earth’s carbon continually moves from the atmosphere to the earth and then back to the atmosphere. Carbon is released back into the atmosphere when plants and animals die, as well as when fires burn, volcanoes erupt, and fossil fuels (such as coal, natural gas, and oil) are combusted.
Additional
resources
The climate needs more sinks and less emissions
Climate is the long-term average of temperature, humidity, and rainfall patterns over seasons. The climate has changed throughout earth’s history. However, industrial human activities have increased this rate of change by rapidly transferring stored carbon from the ground to the atmosphere, where it accumulates mainly as CO₂.
The burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of natural ecosystems like wetlands, grasslands, and forests, have increased the concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere. Humans have accelerated the annual increase in GHGs transferred to the atmosphere by 100 times faster than previous registered natural events like volcanic eruptions and wildfires [1]. Concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere are rising because more is being put into the atmosphere than is being pulled out.
As the amount of GHGs in the atmosphere increases, so does the global temperature. Human activity is leading to imbalances in natural systems, the destruction of food systems, and more extreme weather events. To stabilize the climate, we must limit global GHG emissions and increase removals of carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
Click on the Climate Time Machine to see key climate indicators changing over time: NASA Climate Time Machine
What are climate change impacts? UNFCCC - What are slow onset events
1.3 Primary Forests
Primary forests are forests that have never been industrially logged. They are typically more carbon-dense than previously-logged forests. These ecosystems often take thousands of years to develop soil, living trees, dead trees, understory plants, and leaf litter. Photo credit: Jeff Werner
Emissions from logging primary forests
When a primary forest is logged, much of the stored carbon is lost to the atmosphere right away [3] [4]. Re-growing forests do not begin to store significant amounts of carbon for one to three decades (depending on environment, forest practices and tree species) and take more than a century to reach the storage capacity [5].
Understanding primary forests
Primary forests are forests that have never been industrially logged. They are typically more carbon-dense than previously-logged forests [2]. These ecosystems often take thousands of years to develop soil, living trees, dead trees, understory plants, and leaf litter.
Where carbon is stored
Leaving nature intact is one of the most effective ways to mitigate climate change in the short term. Forests, grasslands and wetlands absorb and store CO₂ and then release it through natural processes like decay. In a forest, CO₂ is absorbed and held in the above ground and below ground parts of trees and the soils.
When a primary forest is logged, much of the stored carbon is lost to the atmosphere right away [3] [4]. Re-growing forests do not begin to store significant amounts of carbon for one to three decades (depending on environment, forest practices and tree species) and take more than a century to reach the storage capacity [5].
1.4 First Nations communities and nature-based solutions
Watch our video explainer below - “Indigenous Ecological Knowledge and Natural Climate Solutions”
Indigenous Peoples have been stewarding nature in ways that protect the climate since time immemorial [6] by managing lands and waters through systems of reciprocal relations and obligations taught by living in relation to one another and the natural world in non-dominating and non-exploitative ways.
Colonial laws and systems put First Nations' traditional lands at high risk of degradation. Despite a growing recognition of the role of nature-based solutions in climate policy, there is limited discussion of how current framings support or prevent Indigenous self-determination [7].
Nature-based Solutions must look beyond carbon calculations and emission reductions. They must also engage with land jurisdiction and the reciprocal and governance relationship held by Indigenous Peoples.
“A compelling possible future exists whereby First Nations lead efforts to address climate change in ways that enhance sovereignty, protect the land and water, and protect biodiversity.”
— Conservation Through Reconciliation Partnership [source]
First Nations-led climate action examples
When implemented by First Nations, protecting and restoring nature can create employment, social, and cultural opportunities and benefits that make communities more resilient to change.
Truly transformative climate action can only be attained when based on a reciprocal, interdependent, and learning relationship with Mother Earth [8]. Support for the provincial government and First Nations to collaboratively create updated strategies and policies for the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems is growing as the effects of climate change are more widely felt.
Click on the examples below to learn more.
Wilps Gwininitxw Protected Area Designation
Watch our video explainer below - “First Nations' Role in Fighting Climate Change”
Photo Source: Coast Funds
30 by 30
In 2020, the federal government pledged to conserve 30 percent of Canada’s land and water by 2030 [9]. Because of the current pressure to hit Canada’s 2030 climate targets, some remote, rural, and First Nations communities in B.C. may benefit economically from forest carbon projects. The federal government has also committed $1.4 billion towards the Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund, which invests in climate solutions that protect and restore nature and create GHG benefits. Philanthropic organizations are also increasing their commitments to funding more conservation and restoration projects.
Continue reading
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![Bird eye view of a forest and river]()
About the Forest Carbon Community Toolkit
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![A winter forest]()
Module 2: Carbon Markets and Carbon Offsets
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![People, Drums and Fire]()
Module 3: Implementing and Upholding Indigenous Carbon Rights, Ownership & Entitlement
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![Caribou pack running in snow]()
Module 4: Opportunities, Barriers & Case Studies
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![Two person in forest]()
Module 5: Planning Your Carbon Project
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Glossary
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Module 1: Climate Change & Natural Climate Solutions
