By Meghan Sullivan, Climigration Network member

On December 12, I attended the webinar "Practices for Effective Engagement and Ethical Use of Information in Assessing Climate Adaptation Barriers and Needs Experienced by Northwest Coastal Tribes," a thought-provoking session that provided deep insights into the care, responsibility, and commitment required when partnering with frontline communities, particularly with Tribal nations.  

This event was a collaborative effort sponsored by the Climigration Network, the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP), and Harvard Law School’s Environmental & Energy Law Program. The project leaders included the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI), the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group (UW CIG), Washington Sea Grant, and Western Washington University. 

Background

The Tribal Coastal Resilience Portfolio recently completed an assessment of the state of climate adaptation among Northwest coastal Tribes, including Tribes’ experience of key barriers and needs which, if addressed, could help advance Tribal resilience. This assessment was informed by a review of Tribal climate documents and other relevant reports, as well as a series of listening sessions with Tribal staff, citizens and elected officials. The resulting report, which has received wide media attention since its release in August 2024, aims to build awareness of Tribes’ adaptation challenges among funders, policy makers, climate service providers and others to mobilize necessary action in support of the climate adaptation efforts of Northwest coastal Tribes. A previous virtual session that explored the findings of the report in more detail is available here.

This webinar was developed to better understand the strategies and practices the project team employed for ethical and effective collaboration with Northwest coastal Tribes. 

Key Learnings

The project team shared their insights across the first three years of the ongoing project, from proposal development and consent protocols to developing partnerships and adaptive project management. The presenters described 5 key practices for effective, ethical engagement:

1. Ensure Tribal leadership. Projects aiming to serve Tribes will be most effective when Tribally led. From the very beginning, ATNI acted as a co-lead of the project, with a Tribal Advisory Group providing additional guidance. This was critical to ensure the work was done ethically and effectively. 

2. Prioritize trust over speed. Focus on relationship-building more than task or output completion - it’s more important to work collaboratively toward agreement on process, products, and next steps, even if that takes a little longer. Anticipate the time this takes when setting project timelines, and be flexible where possible to emphasize trust over speed.

3. Build support for Tribal engagement into the proposal. At the earliest proposal stage, build in ample resources to compensate Tribal project team members, external partners and participants, and advisors for their expertise, time, and travel costs. 

4. Observe free, prior and informed consent and do no harm. Develop rigorous consent protocols that protect Tribal participants and sensitive Tribal information. Share draft products with Tribal participants and governments for review and consent before releasing any final products publicly.

5. Make good on promises. Be accountable to any commitments made to Tribal partners, and ensure that useful, high-quality products are delivered back to Tribes. 

6. Commit for the long haul. Relationships don’t end when the project does. Avoid “parachuting” into and out of Tribal and other frontline communities by committing to long-term, reciprocal relationships that transcend the lifespans of individual projects.

Over the course of the webinar, a central theme emerged – prioritize relationships over all else. This concept was repeatedly invoked during the presentation and following dialogue as the phrase, “move at the speed of trust.” This refrain was demonstrated by the project team at key decision-points such as extending the preparatory phase an additional year beyond the proposed schedule. Often schedule changes would be troublesome or impossible due to time constraints and strict deadlines imposed by funding sources, however project leadership addressed this barrier by allocating sufficient resources to the preparatory phase in the project proposal. 

The speakers also emphasized the necessity of co-producing solutions by involving Tribal leadership, staff, and citizens at every stage of the process, beginning with the development of the proposal scope. The team established a Tribal Advisory Group comprised of the Tribal Nations in the project area to inform the development of listening session design, consent protocols, and products to ensure the work would be done ethically and in good relationship with Tribes. 

Establishing effective and equitable partnerships with Tribes requires partners to “do their homework” to deeply understand Tribal values beyond a general awareness of historical and ongoing injustice. As one speaker noted, “No one cares what you know until they know that you care.” 

Working with Tribes necessitates adherence to ethical principles to protect the intellectual knowledges and sovereignty of Indigenous nations. The team followed two approaches for the consent and information gathering process: 1) free, prior, and informed consent, and 2) do no harm. While these principles may seem familiar for those experienced in academic research protocols, the application of these principles was an outstanding example of ethical engagement practices.

Special considerations are needed for consent protocols to protect Tribal Sovereignty and Indigenous Knowledges, which typically differ from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) consent protocols of most universities. IRB protocols focus on individual risks and benefits rather than collective and community consent required when collaborating with Tribal Nations. 

The project team took great care in planning the listening sessions to build trust and protect both individual participants and Tribal governments, including but not limited to: 

• Sending formal correspondence to the Tribal government leader (chairperson) and environmental director in each Nation to introduce the project, invite the participation of their staff and citizens, explain how information gathered would be used, and offer the choice to opt-out.

• Offering compensation to all listening session participants to acknowledge their time and expertise.

• Implementing a thorough consent process for all in-person or virtual listening sessions, dedicating as much time as was needed at the beginning of engagements. A copy of the consent form used during the assessment is provided as an appendix to the report, available here.

• Offering all participants the opportunity to review quotations and attributions (including the option for quoted members to remain anonymous).

• Sharing the draft assessment report with all participants, Tribal chairpeople, environmental directors, and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (or cultural resource directors) to provide comment and any requests to remove sensitive information. 

• Developing communication strategies that connected Tribal project participants directly with media outlets and reporters, if desired.

• Adding a living addendum to the final report that will continue to accept additional comments from NW coastal Tribes for the foreseeable future. 

The insights shared reinforced that effective engagement goes beyond technical solutions; it requires a commitment to respect, shared decision-making, and honoring Tribal sovereignty.

Reflections

As I continue to reflect on the webinar, I find myself lingering on a common tension in the climate adaptation field between the urgency required to address the immediate needs of climate-impacted groups with the length of time required to build trust. This tension is not merely a logistical challenge but also an ethical one. It requires practitioners, like myself, to navigate complex power dynamics, balance competing interests, and center the voices of those most affected by climate change in all aspects of the adaptation process. Nevertheless, legacy practices of extraction must give way to genuine collaboration and trust-building.

This webinar reminded me that relationships should be the measure of an effective collaboration, not project outputs. By taking a step back and shifting project objectives from short-term collaborations to long-standing commitments, climate adaptation practitioners can prioritize trust building as a key aspect of our work. Ultimately, I believe it will be collaborative partnerships that create the systematic change required for equitable climate adaptation.

As we continue to address the challenges posed by climate change, we must integrate the principles of ethical engagement and equity into every facet of our work. I’m grateful to the Tribal Coastal Resilience Portfolio of the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative, the Climigration Network, ASAP, and Harvard Law School’s Environmental & Energy Law Program for facilitating such an impactful webinar. Thank you for sharing these lessons and insights, I look forward to hearing about the next phase of the project in the near future.