Arctic Leaders to Congress: Oil Development in Alaska Is a Human Rights Issue

As Congress returned from its August recess, Lorraine Netro, a Gwich’in leader from the community of Old Crow in the northern Yukon, again made the long journey to Washington, along with three other indigenous leaders.  The leaders, all women, had a singular mission — to ask representatives to support H.R. 239, a bill currently before the House that would designate the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness.

Even in a place known for rugged wilderness, the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska is a unique place.  Home to over 200 species of migratory birds, it’s also the last onshore area where polar bears den.  Each summer, more than 40,000 Porcupine caribou calves are born and nurse on the Coastal Plain, before beginning their migration hundreds of miles south.  The area brims with so much life that the Gwich’in people, an indigenous group that has lived on the land stretching from northeastern Alaska into the Canadian Yukon for thousands of years, call the Coastal Plain “Iizhik Gwat’san Gwandaii Goodlit” — The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.

But beyond a diverse ecosystem and crucial habitat, the Coastal Plain is home to another precious resource:  vast reserves of oil, potentially as much as 16 billion recoverable barrels. Developers have been eyeing those reserves for decades, even as environmentalists and local tribes have worked for the area’s ultimate preservation.

In April, President Obama dealt a blow to developers and politicians hoping to mine the Coastal Plain’s vast resources of oil by formally recommending that the area be set aside as wilderness — a designation that would keep the area indefinitely free from industrial development.

Only Congress has the power to designate an area as wilderness, the highest level of protection that government can bestow upon a region. And Congress has been notoriously hesitant to act on issues of wilderness designation, with more than 30 proposals currently languishing before lawmakers. Even the Coastal Plain itself is no stranger to attempted Congressional protection — since 1986, Congress has seen a bill intended to protect the area introduced every session.

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