On Friday, the White House announced the creation of the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area, increasing the sustainability of Alaska Native communities and the resilience of the Alaskan Arctic environment. We celebrate this news on behalf of the communities and organizations who call the region home, and who have long stewarded and relied on its vibrancy and ecological health. Read the White House fact sheet here.
The announcement is “historic for the people of the Northern Bering Sea," explained Kawerak, a non-profit tribal consortium that serves the Inupiaq, St. Lawrence Island Yupik and Yupik people who reside in 16 communities of western Alaska and that represents the 20 federally recognized tribes in the Bering Strait region. "The Bering Strait Region is ground zero for climate change and also the chokepoint for marine traffic, which is increasing dramatically as a result of the lessening of sea ice. This area is home to marine mammals, fish and seabirds, which are essentially the breadbasket and the garden for the people in the region.” Read their full statement here.
In an op-ed for Alaska Dispatch News, chairman of the Bering Sea Elders Group Harry Lincoln writes that the action will "prevent new stress on the ocean and give tribes a meaningful seat at the table for future decision-making." Read the full opinion piece here.
The fact sheet accompanying the announcement also announced that the philanthropic community had pledged ~$30 million for projects in rural northern Alaska and Canada. The Moore Foundation is honored to be a part of the Arctic Funders Collaborative, a group of eleven U.S., Canadian and international philanthropic foundations that promotes more informed and effective grantmaking to support healthy Arctic communities and ecosystems.
One project included in that pledge, “Bridging the Scientific and Indigenous Communities to Study Sea Ice Change in Arctic Alaska,” will use a combination of sensing technologies carried by drones and indigenous knowledge to research changing patterns of Arctic ice and other physical characteristics in Kotzebue Sound and the Chukchi Sea. Learn more about the foundation support for the project, to be led by Columbia University, with co-investigators at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Native Village of Kotzebue, here.
Read more:
Message sent
Thank you for sharing.