Resilience and Adaptation Plans
These plans are based on conversations, vulnerability assessments, monitoring, mitigation, and decisions about the focus of adaptation for a community.
| Image | Title | Summary | hf:categories |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Adapt Fisheries | Across the Gulf of Alaska, warming temperatures and increasing extreme weather associated with climate change are transforming and undermining the health of marine ecosystems and disrupting ways of life. From 2014 to 2016, the Gulf of Alaska experienced an unprecedented marine heatwave that led to numerous fisheries disasters and collapses across trophic levels in the ecosystem. Marine heatwaves are expected to become more frequent in the region in the future, with ecological impacts that are difficult to predict due to their cyclical, linear, and additive patterns. Alaskans, especially Alaska Native Peoples, have a deep connection to their surrounding ecosystem and strong dependence on natural resources. This reliance, combined with geographic isolation that drives up costs of living, elevates vulnerabilities of | adaptation-plan economy |
 | Adapt Kodiak | A coastal resilience workshop like those held in other parts of Alaska, but structured to focus on fisheries, food security, infrastructure, energy, and culture/wellness. | adaptation-plan workshop |
 | Adapt Southeast | Convened environmental program managers from 17 tribes in Southeast, as well as representatives from state and federal agencies, non-profits, and the University of Alaska. | adaptation-plan health-culture workshop vulnerability |
 | Adapt Y-K | Works to organize tribal and community leaders, regional organizations, individuals, researchers and public resource managers to develop practical adaptation strategies. | adaptation-plan health-culture workshop vulnerability |
 | Anchorage Climate Action Plan | In 2050, Anchorage is a resilient, equitable, and inclusive community prepared for the impacts of a changing climate. Winter cities around the world look to Anchorage as a leader in stewardship and energy innovation. Anchorage is self-sufficient and the heart of our state’s globally competitive economy. | adaptation-plan |
 | Chilkat Indian Village Resilience Plan | The Chilkat Indian Village Environmental Department completed a resilience plan for the village of Tlákw Aan (Klukwan) in 2023. The resilience plan is focused on climate change impacts to critical infrastructure in Tlákw Aan and to plants and animals that are of cultural importance to the Chilkat Indian Village (CIV) and its Tribal Members. | adaptation-plan vulnerability |
 | Chugach Region: Generations of Change StoryMap | Decades of Climate Change in the Chugach Region Climate change is causing shifts in precipitation, ecology, and temperature in Alaska’s Chugach region, the traditional homelands of the Sugpiaq and dAXunhyuu peoples. Seven tribes in Suungaaciq (Prince William Sound) and Cungaaciq (lower Cook Inlet) make up the Chugach Regional Resources Commission, an intertribal fish and wildlife commission focused onsupporting the resiliency and self-determination for the communities it serves. The Chugach is remote, with most residents living away from Alaska’s road system. Thus, communities areclosely tied to their traditional homelands, relying on fish and wildlife for both the subsistenceway of life and economic opportunities.In recent years, Suungaaciq and Cungaaciq have experienced erratic shifts between snowand rain, die offs of seabirds and salmon, and destructive landslides – all clear signs that climatechange is impacting the coastal region. However, previous generations of tribes, families, andhunters also experienced the earliest impacts of climate change. Traditional knowledge,community solidarity, and scientific inquiry allowed previous generations to adapt to previousclimate impacts – the same skills and way of knowing that will help the Chugach region thrive aswe enter a future climate.The Chugach Regional Resources Commission presents a StoryMap encompassing theexperience of seven generations in southcentral Alaska – the three that preceded us, our currentgeneration, and the three that will follow. The Map includes data on recent challenges andchanges in the region, but also stories of adaptation and resilience among Chugach tribes.Ultimately, this resilience, built into adaptation plans and actions by local communities willmitigate climate change effects and safeguard our environment for our relatives, whether they behuman, fish, or animal, who will walk this land after … | adaptation-plan educator-resource monitoring |
 | Climate Adaptation Plan Template for Tribes in Southeast Alaska | The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes has produced a climate adaptation plan (CAP) template for Tribes in Southeast Alaska. | adaptation-plan |
| Climate Adaptation Planning in Alaska | An overview of climate adaptation planning and assessment in Alaska, including case studies, ongoing needs and resources. … | adaptation-plan mitigation monitoring | |
 | Copper River Climate Change Adaptation Plan | The Copper River Native Association (CRNA), with support from various partners, created a climate change adaptation plan to address risks like flooding, permafrost thaw, and shifts in wildlife that threaten subsistence practices in the Copper River Valley. The plan focuses on educating the community, supporting the implementation of resilient infrastructure and food security solutions, and improving environmental data collection. These efforts aim to protect the cultural and environmental resources of the Ahtna tribal and Copper Valley communities. Students from the CRNA Youth Employment and Training Initiative program and the Native Village of Tazlina Youth program joined Native youth from around the state to learn more about food sovereignty and their role in this changing … | adaptation-plan mitigation monitoring |
 | Georgetown Vulnerability Assessment Process | This vulnerability assessment combined the best available data and model projections with Traditional Knowledge collected from tribal elders, and included a workshop for community members. | adaptation-plan health-culture vulnerability |
 | Igiugig Village Climate Change Adaptation Assessment | The community of Igiugig worked with the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to develop a climate change assessment using traditional knowledge and indigenous planning methods and data and decision support tools available through UAF. | adaptation-plan |
 | Kodiak Climate Adaptation Plan | Climate change poses significant threats to both the subsistence way of life and economicactivity in the Kodiak Archipelago, a region heavily reliant on marine resources. To help Kodiakcommunities prepare for these challenges the Kodiak Area Native Association, with fundingfrom the Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Climate Resilience Program and Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, developed a comprehensive climate adaptation plan. This two-year project resulted in a tribally-led plan that documents potential climate hazards, assessesvulnerabilities within Kodiak communities, and identifies risk reduction strategies. Additionally,the plan outlines climate change data sets and monitoring efforts specific to the Kodiak region.Completed in 2024, the finalized Adaptation Plan serves as a dynamic tool to assist KodiakTribes and communities in building resilience and adapting to the impacts of climatechange. This adaptation plan is a working document that is intended to be updated as more islearned and resources are identified to continue the … | adaptation-plan mitigation monitoring |
 | Nome Tribal Climate Adaptation Plan | Project goals were to familiarize tribal members with climate science and local knowledge, provide an opportunity to identify and discuss climate impacts and adaptation strategies, develop a plan, and share information with other rural Alaska and Native communities. | adaptation-plan health-culture |
 | Oscarville Tribal Climate Adaptation Plan | Utilizes the traditional wisdom of the Yup’ik people and infuses the Western science and research into a new space for value-based decision making for adaptation. | adaptation-plan health-culture vulnerability |
 | Promoting Resilience and Adaptation in Coastal Arctic Alaska | Workshops aimed to better equip resource managers and communities to respond to the challenges and opportunities of climate change, supporting healthy habitats and resilient communities. | adaptation-plan economy health-culture monitoring workshop vulnerability |
 | Shaktoolik Adaptation Plan | An adaptation plan to support the community’s decision to “defend in place.” | adaptation-plan |
 | Tlingit & Haida Adaptation Plan | A road map for prioritizing, monitoring, and responding to climate threats to important subsistence and cultural resources. | adaptation-plan |
| WAGE Report | This report authored by Alaska Sea Grant shines a light on the challenges remote communities face in taking advantage of resources for addressing environmental threats caused by a rapidly warming Arctic. It provides insight and details regarding climate adaptation planning across the state and recommendations for federal funding agencies, community planners, nonprofits, and others to help them get assistance to all communities in need. Communities across Alaska are experiencing an array of climate change impacts, frompermafrost degradation and erosion in Western Alaska to landslides in Southeast Alaska.According to the Denali Commission’s Statewide Threat Assessment: Identification of Threatsfrom Erosion, Flooding, and Thawing Permafrost in Remote Alaska Communities, 29 of 187communities are severely threatened by erosion, 38 by flooding, and 35 by permafrost thaw. Thisyear, a report by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Unmet Needs of EnvironmentallyThreatened Alaska Native Villages, revealed an annual funding gap of $80 million over the nextdecade to mitigate environmental threats to infrastructure. Over the past several years, there has been a substantial increase of available funding for climateadaptation planning, stimulating work at the region and community levels. However, thisfunding is not making its way to some of the communities that need it most. Not all small orremote communities have the human capacity, expertise, time, and other resources to developand implement such plans. Getting under-resourced communities the assistance they needrequires better understanding the specific obstacles they face. Alaska Sea Grant State FellowSean Kelly, under the supervision of Alaska Sea Grant’s coastal community resilience specialist,Davin Holen, investigated barriers to climate adaptation planning at the region and communitylevels. Kelly reviewed Alaska climate action plans, climate adaptation plans and assessments,and associated publications, reports, and articles. Further, Kelly conducted interviews withagencies, researchers, regional Tribal organizations, community planners, and other interestedparties to gather insight on the challenges communities face in developing and implementingplans. The findings are now available in the report Climate Adaptation Planning in CoastalAlaska Communities: Challenges, Opportunities, and Equity Considerations. The report’sfindings are also visualized and summarized in an ArcGIS Story … | adaptation-plan |
