Key Accomplishments

In 2007, Defenders was a key member of the Alaska Climate Change Conservation NGO Working Group, which focused its efforts on the state’s representatives in the U.S. Congress to educate them on the importance of climate change impacts on Alaska wildlife. We also pushed to have federal land management agencies begin to address climate change as well.

 

In 2008, Defenders began participating in the State of Alaska Governor's Climate Change Sub-Cabinet, which is comprised of several commissioners to develop a climate change strategy for Alaska. The strategy was designed to improve the state’s scientific knowledge about actual and expected effects of climate change, develop appropriate measures and policies to prepare communities for the impacts of a changing climate and develop recommendations on Alaska’s participation in regional and national efforts to address climate change.   

 

From 2007 to 2010, Defenders participated in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Connecting Alaska Landscapes into the Future project. This project utilized large scale climate models which provided land managers, government agencies, communities, businesses, academics, and non-profits a unique and useful new way of approaching the question of climate change impacts on Alaska ecosystems.