Alaska Native Communities Applaud Unprecedented Safeguards to Protect Lands and Communities from Oil and Gas Development

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: April 19, 2024

Alaska Native Communities Applaud Unprecedented Safeguards to Protect Lands and Communities from Oil and Gas Development

Historic Conservation Measures Will Finally Prioritize Subsistence Activities and Indigenous Consultation on 13 Million Acres 

(Nuiqsut, Alaska) – Today, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced new protections for 13 million acres of America’s Western Arctic, taking a historic step forward to protect and sustain Native Communities, sacred lands, and wildlife in the Western Arctic from oil and gas development. These lands are home to Indigenous communities who live a subsistence lifestyle in harmony with America’s largest caribou herd.

This is a significant step towards ensuring that any resource development in the Arctic is balanced with protections for the wildlife and lands that shape the traditions and health of our communities.

Alaska Native communities and groups applaud this action below: 

“President Biden has taken an important step to safeguard the areas of the Western Arctic that are essential to our traditions, our communities and our families – and have been for countless generations. For too long, oil and gas executives have been prioritized over our voices and the needs of the communities who live here. The administration must continue to build on these critical protections for protecting wildlife habitat and the health of our Alaska Native communities, so that we may continue to sustain and pass along the traditions and activities of our elders for years to come,” said Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, Founder, Grandmothers Growing Goodness.

While these initial protections are a critical first step, Alaska Natives and advocates are continuing to review the protections for new Special Areas and other protective measures within those areas.

“Indigenous knowledge and indigenous leadership have ensured that the lands and the wildlife in the Western Arctic thrive since time immemorial – but native communities in the region are increasingly facing pressure from oil and gas development and climate change. These new safeguards are a vital step in the right direction to change that status quo and prioritize the voices and livelihood of the Native people who live there. This is a key step towards ensuring the Native people who call these lands and ecosystems home have access to essential resources while also slowing the alarming rate of warming in the Arctic,” said Austin Ahmasuk, Environmental Justice Co-Director, Native Movement.

Background:

President Biden is the first President in history to take action to protect America’s Western Arctic and limit the threats to one of our country's last and most expansive and thriving, biologically-diverse landscapes. By establishing standards for protecting designated Special Areas, which are particularly important for wildlife habitat and subsistence activities, these unprecedented safeguards would help enable our native communities to continue the hunting, gathering and long-standing cultural traditions we depend on. The protections prioritize and incorporate Indigenous Knowledge in the management of the area, along with genuine co-stewardship with our people who have developed deep relationships with the lands since time immemorial.

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Grandmothers Growing Goodness is an Inupiat group dedicated to elevating the understanding and protection of Inupiat culture and people in the face of rampant oil and gas development and climate change. Its core purpose is to help support equity for communities facing significant environmental justice threats and to strengthen equity for the Inupiat.

Native Movement is dedicated to building people power, rooted in an Indigenized worldview, toward healthy, sustainable, & just communities for ALL. Native Movement supports grassroots-led projects that align with our vision, that endeavor to ensure social justice, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and the rights of Mother Earth.

Watch video response from Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, Founder, Grandmothers Growing Goodness: