Nonprofits Work with Gulf Coast Communities to Respond to Climate Change
Author:
The Kresge Foundation
Date Published:
9/5/2011
Description:
For generations, Brenda Dardar Robichaux and her family have lived along the bayous of southeast Louisiana. They depend on fish, crabs, shrimp, and oysters from the Gulf of Mexico to earn a living. They have deep ties to the homeland of the United Houma Nation, a 17,000-member Native American tribe that Robichaux, a former chief, led for 13 years. But man-made and natural hazards threaten the Houmas and other Gulf Coast communities. Environmental disruption tied to navigation and flood control on the Mississippi River, and oil and gas drilling have changed the landscape and weakened the natural systems that long buffered Gulf Coast communities from severe weather. Coalitions of nonprofit environmental, advocacy, and anti-poverty organizations have joined forces with community groups, business leaders, and government agencies to help. Together, the coalitions hope to stem, or possibly reverse, the loss of land, wildlife, fisheries, settlements, and livelihoods in the Mississippi River Delta and the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast areas.
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