Building Resilience to Climate Change in Rural Alaska: Understanding Impacts, Adaptation and the role of Tek

Abstract

The arctic system is undergoing significant change, warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world due to anthropogenic climate change. Through interviews with Alaska Native communities along the Yukon River, this study documents traditional knowledge relating to the changes that are occurring in the weather and on the landscape, effects on subsistence livelihoods, and adaptation strategies. People observed significant changes, many of which are consistent with conventional scientific studies on ecosystem change in Alaska. They responded to environmental change by spreading risk across resources, space, time and households. Since many current and historical adaptation practices are embedded in the subsistence lifestyle and fall under federal and state management, this study also explored the effects of management on resilience. Respondents viewed subsistence management regimes as detrimental to livelihoods when they did not prioritize subsistence uses over recreational and commercial uses of natural resources, provide for local involvement in regulatory and management decisions, and when they constrained subsistence harvesters’ ability to pursue resources when they were available or most needed. People saw a benefit to agency management of subsistence when management actions supported local priorities, such as predator control. People viewed subsistence management even more favorably when local communities were able to voice concerns and have a role in shaping decisions. Community resilience to climate change is in part determined by the ability to accumulate knowledge and act collectively, and is enhanced by the ability to participate in the decisions that affect the flow of resources. Therefore, management actions that inhibit the exchange of information and collective action, qualities inherent to many traditional knowledge systems, may undermine the resilience of Alaska Native communities to climate change. However, integrating traditional knowledge with natural resource management and allowing communities to participate in decisions through collaborative and co-management arrangements, if done in a way that allows traditional knowledge to actually shape management outcomes, may enhance resilience.