Pursuing permanent protection for Alaska’s Bristol Bay

Bristol Bay is one of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems. It is also synonymous with commercial fisheries: local communities and businesses rely on wild-caught salmon for their livelihoods. Sarah Zaaimi lays out how WWF is working with the local community to help to protect this unique Alaskan ecosystem.

Seasoned after years of standing against the Pebble Mine project, the Bay communities are now leading the Bristol Bay Victory Challenge (BBVC) to obtain permanent protection for this iconic Alaskan ecosystem.

The Bristol Bay watershed is one of the only remaining pristine habitats on Earth for salmon, which drive the region’s ecological, economic and cultural health. Largely untouched by industrial development, Bristol Bay and its salmon support the subsistence needs of more than 30 local Alaska Native communities [SCI1] and thousands of Alaskans within and beyond the region. The proposed Pebble Mine project would be one of the world’s largest open pit mines, exposing the watershed to billions of tons of mining waste for decades to come.

“Local and global communities have pursued the permanent protection of Bristol Bay for decades due to its centrality in the lives and identities of western Alaskan cultures,” says Steve MacLean, managing director of the US Arctic Program at WWF. “The BBVC also recognizes and safeguards the unmatched economic and nutritional value of Alaskan salmon fisheries for businesses and people.”

WWF recently joined the BBVC, a five-year, Indigenous-led, US$50 million catalytic fundraising effort to protect this extraordinary watershed and the wildlife it supports while also driving large-scale investment in the sustainability and prosperity of the Bay and its people. WWF and other BBVC partners have committed to jointly raise funds to secure regulatory and legislative protection for land in the Bristol Bay watershed and provide sustainable economies for the communities and economies around nearby Lake Iliamna.

WWF and other BBVC partners have committed to jointly raise funds to secure regulatory and legislative protection for land in the Bristol Bay watershed and provide sustainable economies for the communities and economies around nearby Lake Iliamna.

Prioritizing the protection of the Pedro Bay rivers

The most immediate need is to secure protection for private, Alaskan Native-owned land around Pedro Bay. In 2021, the Pedro Bay Corporation, an Alaska Native Corporation, agreed to place a conservation easement on 17,800 hectares of land that encompassed four major salmon-producing rivers in the Pedro Bay region on the east end of Lake Iliamna. The initiative is known as the Pedro Bay Rivers Project.

“The community of Pedro Bay and the Pedro Bay Corporation are glad to finally see this project coming to fruition,” explains Matt McDaniel, the CEO of the Pedro Bay Native Corporation. “The proposed easements bisect the route for the northern road that Pebble Mine developers proposed to transport ore from the mine to a shipping port on Cook Inlet. This easement will put a literal and figurative roadblock on the development of Pebble Mine, and support a local, Indigenous community that has been steadfast in its opposition to the Pebble Mine.”

To protect important salmon rivers and habitats, the US government recently indicated its intent to have the Environmental Protection Agency prohibit the disposal of mine waste or tailings in the proposed Pebble Mine footprint. This positive step gives WWF and BBVC partners the opportunity to close the conservation easement in Pedro Bay and pursue the regulatory and legislative protections that will protect the ecosystem and ultimately help secure sustainable economies in the area.

WWF will continue to work with BBVC partners, Alaska Native communities and stakeholders to raise funds to complete the Pedro Bay Rivers Project by the end of 2022.