Forthcoming U.S. Ocean Justice Strategy Should Promote Equitable Management

In a July 24 comment letter, The Pew Charitable Trusts lauded the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality’s development of an Ocean Justice Strategy to ensure that all people and communities have access to the benefits of healthy oceans and offered recommendations to more meaningfully include Tribal governments and Indigenous knowledge in decision-making and implementation of policies.

Although Pew’s recommendations can be applied to the whole country, the letter paid particular attention to Alaska, which has coastline more than twice the length of the East and West coasts combined. The state produces nearly half of all seafood consumed in the U.S., but Indigenous communities in Western Alaska and the Bering Sea region face threats to their food security and millennia-old way of life because of alarming declines in salmon, crab, halibut, and other important species.

The letter called on the federal government to prioritize designation of Indigenous-led marine protected areas and increased federal financial and logistical support to ensure the durability and effectiveness of resource co-management in Alaska and around the nation.

Pew has long worked to support Indigenous-led conservation in Alaska through advancing Tribal co-management, incorporating Indigenous knowledge into decision-making, and ensuring that the people and communities that are most directly affected have a strong voice in federal policy development and implementation.