The dynamic context of cultural and social sustainability of communities in Southwest Alaska

Purpose – Commercial fishing in Southwest Alaska provides for an opportunity to engage in wage labor jobs while still allowing for time to participate in subsistence hunting and fishing. Salmon therefore is an important part of both the wage labor economy and the subsistence economy. In Southwest Alaska recent studies documenting the subsistence economy and traditional ecological knowledge have centered on the communities that inhabit the Kvichak Watershed. This watershed comprising Iliamna Lake and Lake Clark along with other numerous feeder streams, rivers, and lakes is an important spawning habitat for the Bristol Bay fishery, one of the largest salmon fisheries in the world. Some of these studies are partially due to a proposed copper and gold mine. This paper aims to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews for these studies are structured household surveys that document household demographics, subsistence harvest for one study year, and household economics. In addition at the completion of each survey residents are asked to include comments and concerns regarding local subsistence patterns and trends. Findings – Residents during these studies have expressed concern that social and cultural changes are also happening in an environment where they are also seeing rapid ecological changes. These changes included climate variability and unpredictable weather. This creates an environment that is difficult to plan for subsistence hunting and fishing while continuing to take into consideration a work schedule, the money from which provides the means and materials for engaging in subsistence. Originality/value – This paper will examine factors of change and ask the question of whether it can assess the impacts of climate variability and change on rural communities in Southwest Alaska without also trying to understand cultural and social sustainability within the larger dynamic context in which these changes are occurring.