The North American Arctic is an exceptionally productive and biologically diverse area, but warming at roughly twice the global average rate.
Through our Marine Conservation Initiative, we support efforts that contribute to healthy and resilient marine ecosystems in the United States and Canada, including the North American Arctic.
Shrinking ice areas and thinner sea ice not only change ecosystem dynamics, but are making more of the Arctic vulnerable to outsized environmental risks from potentially harmful industrial activities. Protecting hotspots of ecological productivity is of special concern to our grantmaking, and in 2016, we provided a grant to the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada to develop recommendations on how best to protect and manage the Pikialasorsuaq polynya, which straddles Canadian and Greenlandic Arctic waters.
The Pikialasorsuaq polynya remains free of sea ice all year and teems with migratory and marine life including narwhal, walrus, seals and polar bears, as well as seabirds and fish. At about 80,000 square kilometers, it’s the world’s largest Arctic polynya and is kept open by wind, tides and an ice bridge, which once supported regular trips of Inuit between Canada and Greenland.
In 2016, the Inuit Circumpolar Council established the Pikialasorsuaq Commission to develop a shared vision among Eastern Canadian and Western Greenlandic Inuit communities for stewardship of the polynya. The commission’s report recommended an Inuit management authority for the area, to provide greater influence over conservation and development decisions, and to be at the center of scientific monitoring and management efforts.
In 2018, the Government of Canada appointed a high-level negotiator to work with Greenlandic and Danish authorities to manifest the recommendations of the Pikialasorsuaq Commission. In early 2019, Pew Trusts awarded a fellowship to Shari Fox, a longtime Nunavut resident and researcher, to design a community-based research and monitoring plan for the Pikialasorsuaq polynya.
As a November 2018 issue of Hakai Magazine reports, sound management won’t stop shifts in climate, but the Inuit of the Pikialasorsuaq are uniquely positioned to take the lead in monitoring its effects.
For Inuit, the protection of the North Water region goes beyond government and even science — it’s personal.
“The Pikialasorsuaq is not just an ocean, or a unique wildlife area impacted by climate change. This is our home, our Nuna,” reflected Commissioner Okalik Eegeesiak recently. “This shared body of water defines who we are as a people. It connects us.”
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