Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic: Perspectives from the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Region

• Main Authors: Hinzman, Larry D, Outridge, Peter, Klepikov, Alexander, Walsh, John E., Ananicheva, Maria, Armstrong, Thomas, Bengtson, John, Flato, Greg, Gerlach, S. Craig, Huntington, Henry P., Kofinas, Gary, Loring, Philip, Lovecraft, Amy Lauren, Eerkes- Medrano, Laura, Nikitina, Elena, Preston, Benjamin L., Trainor, Sarah F., Gamble, Jim, Thorsteinson, Lyman
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Arctic; AMAP; Arctic Council; Chukchi; Climate change
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1435018; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1435018; https://doi.org/10.2172/1435018

In May 2013, the Arctic Council requested the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) to “produce information to assist local decision-makers and stakeholders in three pilot regions in developing adaptation tools and strategies to better deal with climate change and other pertinent environmental stressors” (AMAP, 2017). Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic (AACA) is the response to that request: an assessment of climate and integrated social and environmental frameworks or models that can inform adaptation actions in the face of Arctic change. Three Arctic regions were chosen by AMAP for pilot assessments to be conducted simultaneously. This report is an assessment for the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort (BCB) region. It focuses on the challenges that residents have experienced and the adaptations they have implemented in response to the rapid changes of recent decades – in climate, landscape, wildlife, and social, economic, and health systems. It also looks to the future and analyzes the strengths and deficiencies in societies’ and individuals’ abilities to adapt, so that decision-makers may better understand where assistance is needed or where alternatives must be developed.