Webinars

After President Obama’s visit to Alaska in 2015, which included a visit to the Native Village of Kotzebugh north of Nome, Water Policy Consulting, LLC is using the focus on how climate change is impacting Alaska Native communities to help such communities plan, particularly, in relation to the application of federal, state and tribal policies to adaption planning.

To this end, in partnership with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy and tribal environmental and climate change professionals throughout the country, we are offering the Winter 2015-16 Policy & Climate Adaption Mitigation and Planning for Alaska Natives webinars series. The series will demonstrate how Native Villages and other communities in Alaska can apply state, federal and tribal policies to address climate change impacts on water and subsistence resources through water resource management and protection, land and water rights, sovereignty and other resiliency and mitigation strategies.

---

The topics and schedule for the past webinar series:

Arctic Policy & Climate Change for Alaska Natives

November 18, 2015; 10:00 – 11:15 am AKT
Presentation by Hal Shepherd, Water Policy Consulting, LLC.

Strategies for Strengthening Alaska Native Village Roles in Natural Resource Management

January 5, 2016; 10:00 – 11:15 am AKT
Presentation by Barrett Ristroph, Ph.D. Student, University of Hawaii Pacific Policy Director, Pacific Environment.

Tribal Sovereignty & Climate Change for Alaska Natives

January 19, 2016; 10:00 – 11:15 am AKT
Presentation by Prof. Elizabeth Kronk, University of Kansas School of Law

Water Policy & Climate Change for Alaska Natives

February 17, 2016; 10:00 – 11:15 am AKT
Presentation by Robert Anderson, Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor Harvard Law School

Human Rights & Climate Change in the Arctic

March 8, 2016; 10:00 – 11:30 am AKT
Presentation by Mark Trahant, Charles R. Johnson Endowed Professor of Journalism at the University of North Dakota

Environmental Code Development for Alaska Natives

April 13, 2016; 10:00 – 11:15 am  AKT
Presentation by Toby Tahler, Model Forest Policy Project

November 18, 2015; 10:00 – 11:15 am AKT
Presentation by Hal Shepherd, Water Policy Consulting, LLC.

Covering Federal, state and tribal policies as they apply to arctic peoples and places and drawing on local and traditional knowledge in applying polar law and policy to climate change. Includes US Federal government climate change related initiatives for Alaska arising out of President Obama’s recent visit to the State; the interest in the Arctic region that the European Union and other international bodies have recently expressed at the inter and intra governmental level and the application of Indigenous rights and policies of the arctic region to address climate change mitigation and adaption .

Topics Include:

1. Structuring of the regulatory avenues that international governing organizations are putting into place for developing policies applicable to the Arctic region;
2. Recent US Federal government climate change related initiatives for Alaska;
3. The Denali Commission’s as Coordinator of federal climate change policies in Alaska;
4. Finding solutions tailored to the needs of the Arctic region at the international level;
5. Using the international-law and Human rights perspective for cooperation with other Arctic State partners.

---

January 5, 2016; 10:00 – 11:15 am AKT
Presentation by Barrett Ristroph, Ph.D. Student, University of Hawaii Pacific Policy Director, Pacific Environment.

Unlike tribes in other U.S. jurisdictions, Alaska’s tribes do not have sovereignty (or direct ownership in many cases) over their traditional lands and natural resources on which they depend for their nutritional and cultural survival. In place of treaties ensuring hunting and fishing rights, and they are subject to complex hunting laws that limit their ability to adapt hunting practices to changes in species distribution. Many Alaska Native Villages are grappling with the combined impacts of climate and social change. This Webinar will identify and evaluates a range of tools that could help Alaska Native Villages increase their influence over wildlife and land management decisions, including following international bodies..

Topics include:

1. The Arctic Council;
2. Forming a non-profit organization that could participate in international bodies and apply for grants available only to 501(c)(3) corporations;
3. Entering into consultation agreements with federal and state agencies as well as other entities;
4. Participating in development decisions by becoming a cooperating agency or establishing an oversight committee;
5. Forming or participating in state and federal advisory councils; pursue co-management agreements under federal laws in corporation with state entities;
6. Designating Traditional Cultural Properties to provide for more consultation;
7. Incorporating as a municipality; pursuing conflict avoidance agreements with industry; drafting tribal guidelines and encouraging regulatory agencies to adopt them;
8. Enacting a code or ordinances to address land within the tribe’s jurisdiction;
9. Asking the Interior Secretary to take land into trust status; and pursuing an aboriginal title claim.

---

January 19, 2016; 10:00 – 11:15 am AKT
Presentation by Prof. Elizabeth Kronk, University of Kansas School of Law

Presentation on tribally specific tools and resources regarding how tribal governments can effectively manage natural resources, encourage the federal government to recognize it’s trust responsibility to the Villages and protect the environment consistent with the cultural and traditional needs of such tribes and villages.

Topics Include:

1. The Federal Trust Obligation to Federally recognized Alaskan Native Tribes;
2. The Significance of Government-to-Government Consultation in Alaska;
3. Inter-play of Tribal, State & Federal Sovereignty in Alaska;
4. The significance of Tribal Adoption and Adaptation of Federal Environmental Laws;
5. Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Jurisdiction as it applies to Alaska Native Tribes;
6. Examples of Tribal Vulnerability Assessments and Climate Change Adaption Plans;
7. Utilizing TAS status for the protection of water resources.

---

February 17, 2016; 10:00 – 11:15 am AKT
Presentation by Robert Anderson, Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor Harvard Law School

Provides environmental professionals and Alaska Native Communities with an overall understanding of how water policies, regulation, and laws apply to Alaska Native communities and can be utilized to find solutions to environmental challenges.

Topics include:

1. The unique legal and political status of federally-recognized tribal nations, and how it pertains to water management;
2. Federally Reserved Water Rights;
3. Provide examples of federal water and related laws and how tribes can help to implement these laws;
4. The Application of the Federal Trust Duty to Native Alaskan Tribal water interests;
5. The State Constitution, Public Trust and related laws;
6. Water Privatization and how it applies to Alaska.

March 8, 2016; 10:00 – 11:30 am AKT
Presentation by Mark Trahant, Charles R. Johnson Endowed Professor of Journalism at the University of North Dakota

Minimizing the impact of climate change will depend on our ability to move towards a low-carbon society. Altering the way in which our global economy functions is fundamental to this change. Governing individual and collective behavior, including the conduct of state and federal governments, is therefore central to addressing both the causes and the impacts of climate change. A critical understanding of the complexities, challenges and opportunities raised by the policy regime for mitigating and adapting to climate change will be highly relevant for tribal government’s and communities who seeks to play a role in moving Alaska towards mitigating and adapting to change.

Topics Include:

1. International human rights standards – guideline to address climate change;
2. Climate Change and International Law & Policy;
3. Equity and Adaptation;
4. Sustainable Energy Governance;
5. Climate Change and Litigation;
6. Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
7. Core Universal Human Rights Treaties;
8. The application of governmental policies to indigenous peoples right to land and natural resources.

 

April 13, 2016; 10:00 – 11:15 am 
Presentation by Toby Tahler, Model Forest Policy Project

Presentation focusing on how adoption of environmental codes can promote  Tribal sovereignty and environmental ethics and assist tribes in addressing environmental Contamination, natural resource extraction, climate change and other emerging environmental challenges. Yet, the vast majority of tribal environmental law is not being developed under tribal sovereignty or delegated federal authority. There appears to be more interest in.

Presentation by Toby Anungazuk, IGAP Program Manager, Chinik Eskimo Community. Presentation will focus on the need to regulate the storage of containers with in the limits of the City of Golovin. In the past, for example, when barge companies have stored military waste on the city docks proceeding storm surges in which flooding has inundated vans opening doors and the supersacks were openly exposed to flood waters, spreading some of the contaminants outside of the vans. Despite the obvious threat to human health this represented, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation reported to the local media that whatever contaminants got exposed to the flood waters were the most “innocuous” type of contaminants that could be released. Such responses from state oversight agencies illustrates the need for the tribe to protect itself by developing it’s one environmental laws to protect their communities.

Topics include:

1. Why Enact Tribal Environmental Laws?
2. Existing Tribal Environmental Laws
3. Types of Tribal Environmental Laws:
4. Innovations in tribal environmental law and climate change planning
5. Examples of tribal environmental codes;
6. The significance of adopting federal regulatory standards for Tribes.