Today the Biden Administration announced extended protections for 13 million acres of designated Special Areas in the Western Arctic. The regulations will also enhance protections for subsistence use and resources throughout the NPR-A. In response, WWF has issued the following statement from Steve MacLean, Managing Director, U.S. Arctic Program:
"The improved regulations for America's Arctic announced today ensure the protections of some of the most ecologically important lands in the Western Arctic. Drilling for oil in these landscapes would fracture the fundamental integrity of the reserve's ecosystem. The Arctic is particularly vulnerable to climate change, which means that additional oil and gas developments would only accelerate climate impacts for wildlife, biodiversity, and for the rest of the planet.
The Biden Administration's decision is a big step towards moving us away from a petroleum fueled future while supporting cultural subsistence traditions of the Indigenous communities who have relied upon and stewarded these lands for millennia."
