Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Ecosystems and Sustainable Development Vll

Publisher

WIT Press

Rights and Access Note

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for educational uses. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Publication Date

2009

Publisher location

Southamptom, UK

First Page

263

Last Page

272

Volume Number

122

Abstract/ Summary

Understanding how rural communities use and depend upon local natural resources is a critical factor in developing policies to sustain the long-term viability of human and natural systems. Such “community-resource” linkages are particularly important in Alaska, where rural communities – many of them comprised of indigenous Alaskan Natives – are highly dependent upon local resources found on public lands. Alaskan communities utilize forests in many ways. To better understand these coupled “social-ecological” systems, we combined socio-economic data from the 2000 U.S. Census with timber permit data from the USDA Forest Service to describe communities and their use of forest resources. Our results suggest that private access to public resources is an important feature of Alaskan communities, and that continued access is likely to be a key factor in sustaining human systems on the landscape. As a result, public land managers should give special consideration to local resource use when making policy decisions,

Citation/Publisher Attribution

Mekbeb, E.T.; Lilieholm, R.J.; Blahna, D.J.; Kruger, L.E. 2009. Resource use, dependence and vulnerability: community-resource linkages on Alaska's Tongass National Forest. WIT Transaction on Ecology and the Environment. 122: 263-272.

Publisher Statement

© 2009 WIT Press

DOI

10.2495/ECO090251

Version

post-print (i.e. final draft post-refereeing with all author corrections and edits)

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Rights Statement

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted.