Project Profile: Mitigate Climate Change Impacts & Improve Subsistence Food Security Via Co-Stewardship Arrangements

Dried fish hanging in Camp Sivu, Alaska.

NPS Photo

Inflation Reduction Act
Resilience | FY23-27 $6,157,808

The National Park Service (NPS) will enhance climate change resilience and food security in rural Alaskan communities. The project prioritizes goals of building Tribal-NPS co-stewardship relationships that support Tribes’ ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions and associated food security challenges. Activities include improving harvest reporting strategies and conducting community harvest assessments. This project has additional goals to develop adaptive approaches to conserve healthy fish and wildlife populations and ensure continued subsistence uses of fish and wildlife by rural Alaska Native and non-Native residents.

Why? Due to declines in reliable access to fish and wildlife populations that are vital subsistence resources for rural Alaska communities, the National Park Service is embarking on this project to enhance food security and resilience in these areas. Across Alaska, rural communities are facing complex challenges driven by climate change – impacting the social-ecological systems in these places, and, in turn, threatening food security for rural Alaskan subsistence users. Particularly, two systems are under stress: those where caribou and moose are major food sources for subsistence users, and those where salmon are major food sources.

What Else? The project’s activities will engage youth from local Alaskan schools, and provide youth internships via Indian Youth Service Corps, Alaska Native Science & Engineering Programs, Scientists in Parks, and hiring via Public Lands Corps and Pathways programs.

About the Inflation Reduction Act

The Inflation Reduction Act provides the National Park Service with an historic opportunity to address critical ecosystem resilience, restoration, and environmental planning needs. Projects funded in national parks represent broad-scale and impactful resource investments across every corner of out nation—from Alaska to Florida to Maine.