(NOAA)
The Association of Village Council Presidents is calling for the reinstatement of the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area.
The Executive Board and Administration of AVCP has issued a resolution to reinstate the Executive Order creating the Resilience Area as originally passed. If that effort should fail, the resolution said, legislation should be passed that is identical to or surpasses the provisions in that order.
The Resilience Area was created in December 2016 in an Executive Order signed by President Obama. AVCP, along with the Kawerak Native Regional non-profit corporation and the Bering Sea Elders Group, had advocated for the designation. AVCP’s resolution said that it wants “to respond to the increasing challenges and threats due to climate change, and the increased shipping and exploitation of waters on which AVCP’s member tribes rely.”
The order required the federal government to consult with Alaska Native tribes on decisions affecting the Northern Bering Sea and to gather traditional knowledge to inform decisions regarding the region.
Last month President Trump extinguished that order, removing the tribal consultation requirement and opening Arctic waters to off-shore oil and gas leasing.
A press release from AVCP said that the Board and Administration are “deeply disappointed.” They’re calling for individual tribes and regional organizations to join them in demanding that the order be reinstated.
They’re also demanding that Alaska’s Congressional Delegation support reinstating the order. The resolution said that AVCP and its member tribes had asked the delegation to protect the order, but nobody from the delegation consulted AVCP or its tribes before the revocation occurred.
Anna Rose MacArthur is a reporter at KYUK in Bethel.
