Source: NRDC

Excerpt:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced in April that it’s permanently protecting some 13 million acres (about the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined) of wildlands in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) and also finalized a rule that could help safeguard even more of it. Critically, the government intends for the new Special Areas Rule to serve as a pathway for the Indigenous communities who depend on the region’s natural resources to protect their subsistence rights and cultural traditions.

As the impacts of global warming and oil and gas development radically reshape the landscape and lives of the communities and wild denizens of the Far North, these actions offer a chance to slow the pace of change.

“Our lands and waters are a beautiful place on the horizon, and we have the bounty of renewal for every continent for our birds,” says Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, executive director of Grandmothers Growing Goodness, an environmental justice group dedicated to protecting Inupiat culture. Future generations need to rely on these places too, she adds, “as our elders showed us.” 

Read more: The Biden Administration Protects Millions of Acres of Arctic Alaska