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Rainbow Research

Environmental Justice

Environmental justice work at Rainbow Research began in 2021. It has evolved to be a core focus area. The list below details ongoing work, and does not include completed or planned initiatives.

List of Initiatives

Decolonizing Nature-based Solutions (NbS)
  • Funded by the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment
  • Outcomes and Products
    • Rainbow Research coordinated interviews and workshops to examine how NbS is being applied in communities and the public and private sectors.
    • It is completing a contribution to an article that argues that rather than “mainstreaming” NbS, the focus of science, policy, and praxis needs to be on decolonizing NbS to advance climate justice and equitable climate resilience.
Boosting Climate Resilience of Climate-Vulnerable Communities in the Midwest
  • Funded by the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Outcomes and Products
    • Rainbow Research is interviewing people leading environmental justice work in environmental justice communities across Minnesota and the Midwest.
    • Participants will learn from research on flood and drought risk modeling in EJ communities over the next 100 years and what they can do to boost climate resilience collectively.

 

Supporting the work of the Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition
  • Pro bono work
  • Paid for keynote presentations as requested
Organizing for an indigenous-led Co-management paradigm for natural resource stewardship in MN
  • Funded by The Nature Conservancy
  • Outcomes and Products
    • We have nudged The Nature Conservancy toward a co-management paradigm with Native Nations to ensure that traditional ecological knowledge more strongly influences natural resource stewardship in Minnesota.
    • We are working to ensure that Native-led  and BIPOC organizations working in the fields of forestry, biodiversity, conservation, agroecology, agroforestry, environmental justice and climate resilience are directly involved in substantive ways in the replenishment of the Eastern Broadleaf Forest Province in Minnesota, and link that work to the preservation and regeneration of all the critical ecosystems in Minnesota on which indigenous lives depend.
Anchoring the work of the Environmental Justice Coordinating Council
  • which builds the leadership and supports the organizing of people from communities most impacted by environmental injustice and climate vulnerability
    • Funding from the Saint Paul and Minnesota Community Foundation and Bigelow Foundation
    • Outcomes and Products
      • Through EJCC work, the awareness of critical, intersecting, environmental justice issues will continue to grow in communities most affected in MN.
      • The awareness, through EJCC fellows, will be translated into organized action to reduce environmental harm and move communities toward a Just Transition.
Advancing a commons-based land justice strategy for BIPOC farmers in MN
  • Funded by the Bush Foundation
  • Outcomes and Products
    • We have worked with others to create a Commons Land Community Land Trust that can hold land for BIPOC farmers struggling to get access to land to grow food, grain, medicine, fiber, and fuel for communities. 
    • Farmers cooperating in our commons-based organizing framework commit to the objectives of sequestering carbon through their growing practices, bringing back biodiversity with their growing practices, nourishing local living economies; and cooperating with other farmers in knowledge exchanges and organizing together for a brighter agroecological future for Minnesota.
Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, community engagement work group
  • Funded by diverse environmental grantmakers in MN 
  • Outcomes and Products
    • We began this work to nudge the Legislative and Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources to incorporate environmental justice as a core criterion. The work evolved to prioritize the development of a complementary strategy, which is a new small grants program to be administered by the MN Department of Natural Resources. As a result of work on this, pending reauthorization of the use of lottery proceeds to fund the ENRTF, there will be $22 to $25 million available annually for organizations that are not a strong fit for LCCMR funding to secure funding through the DNR to advance the health of the Minnesota environment and all Minnesota communities, more democratically, inclusively, justly, and interculturally.
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