In Alaska, changes in snow, ice, and weather, have resulted in risks to human lives, infrastructure damage, threats to valuable natural resources, and disruption of hunting, fishing, and livelihoods.
Leaders from the Aleutians to the Chukchi Sea came together for a series of Coastal Resilience and Adaptation Workshops, spearheaded by three Landscape Conservation Cooperatives and the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association. Tribal leaders, resource managers, community planners, and scientists explored strategies to adapt to these unprecedented changes.The workshop series brought together 14 Organizing Partners 34 Tribes, 15 State & Federal Agencies, and a total of more than 200 participants to meet in four regional hub locations.
This guide includes a selection of tools and success stories from around Alaska to help communities, resource managers and decision makers maintain resilience and adapt to change (Toolbox 1: Resilience and Adaptation Strategies). This information is followed by selected sources for learning more about the environmental changes Alaska is already experiencing, as well as continued changes projected into the future (Toolbox 2: The Building Blocks of Climate Change). The content selected for these toolboxes was informed by conversations during four workshops held in regional hub communities of Nome, Unalaska, King Salmon and Kotzebue. Over six months in 2016, almost 200 participants from 34 tribes, 14 state and federal agencies, local communities as well as several research institutions and nongovernmental organizations shared their insights on the most urgent risks and vulnerabilities for coastal communities and resources. They also identified key opportunities for collaboration between communities and agencies. While this toolbox aims to capture highlights of those discussions, perhaps the most valuable outcome were new connections between groups who tend to not interact, and a strong, collective resolve to keep those conversations and partnerships alive and growing.
