In Alaska, rising sea levels, melting permafrost, melting glaciers and sea-ice and eroding banks are forcing 33 villages to move to higher ground. Another 150 villages will soon follow.

Without immediate action, climate change will lead to an exodus of climate change refugees into urban areas. If Native villages are deserted, traditional practices, foods, knowledge and Native youth will disappear from their ancestral landscapes.

Native Conservancy is building community resiliency through regenerative-based economies and food sovereignty into every aspect of our programs. By activating a network of local leaders informed by traditional knowledge, our resilient community solutions can be adapted to any community’s needs and priorities as social enterprises. Engaging young people ensures new generations will continue to cultivate community food growing, processing, food storage, and land conservation for the next generation.

Read more about our Social Enterprise Programs

Native Conservancy’s Social Enterprise Programs spring from a mix of local and Indigenous knowledge, training, infrastructure and market development, and metrics-driven research with the end goal of building a vibrant regenerative economy that puts Native Peoples back in power.

Incubation of Kelp Fishermen’s Collective - Farmer Permitting

Since 2019, Native Conservancy has developed a pilot program to cultivate wild kelp seed and test growing, monitoring, harvesting and processing kelp for many uses. Since then, we have secured commitment from Indigenous Tribes and Villages across coastal Alaska interested in bringing this project to scale via participation in an Indigenous Community Outreach and Engagement Tour. Native Conservancy will provide technical assistance and training to help prospective Native kelp farmers negotiate the state’s permit system through intensive mentorship and training. They will form the first cadre of peer trainers for the next group of Native kelp farmers.

This is the first step in a goal to permit and deploy one hundred (100) 20-acre Native owned kelp farms with the potential to grow 30 million pounds of raw food and restorative kelp annually in Prince William Sound, and will be scalable to other regions and coastal communities. The formation of a Kelp Fishermens Collective 501(c)3 and Native Kelp Alliance 501(c)4 will build organizing power for Indigenous ocean farmers and propagate networks of Native-owned kelp farms, kelp seed hatcheries, laboratories growing climate-resilient species, and localized and portable processing hubs for direct marketing kelp mariculture businesses throughout coastal Alaska.

Processing and Seed Nursery Facility

Access to parent kelp seed stock and processing facilities are two of the major bottlenecks in the kelp mariculture industry in Alaska and are fundamental to establishing thriving kelp farms in Prince William Sound and beyond. Native Conservancy’s vision for a processing and seed nursery facility builds on the creation of our Community Kelp Seed Nursery (CKSN) at the Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute in Qutalleq (Seward), Alaska. We are scaling our cold storage, kelp processing, and CKSN to include a facility based in Eyak (Cordova), Alaska, to meet kelp seed demands for the region and ensure Native farmers have the capacity to cultivate, store, process, and sell high-value kelp to a robust market.

Tesia Bobrycki, Program Director, at the CKSN at Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute in Qutalleq (Seward)

Community Cold Storage

Native Conservancy has completed three years of pilot testing of food cold storage for over ten species of seafood, and expanded the cold storage program development to include kelp. Utilizing revolutionary DENBA Wave Technology to store food at below 21 degrees Fahrenheit, the Cold Storage program can be scaled to ensure food security and year round availability of subsistence foods in a climate changing world. Many villages can no longer rely on permafrost to keep their harvests from spoiling; access to high-quality and effective cold storage is an urgently needed component of our climate survival strategy and our regenerative kelp economies.

Seafood/Kelp Processing and Value-Adding

Native Conservancy is currently investigating potential markets for surplus kelp (after community needs are met) to develop a strategy for Alaska’s fledgling kelp industry. These potential markets include, but are not limited to, human consumption, pet and animal feed, compost/fertilizers, supplements, biofuels, and pharmaceuticals. Our market research will analyze potential scales of production as they tie to existing product and market channels, as well as identify barriers for farmers and address solutions. It will analyze cost of goods associated with processing challenges specific to remote Alaskan communities, including identifying transportation costs, and will ultimately result in a detailed understanding of the size and scope of domestic markets for seaweed so that Native kelp farmers can participate competitively in the seaweed market and mariculture space.

This research will inform an investment deck for a cross-sector, Indigenous-led product line, targeting food, ingredients, and fertilizer markets. Business training for Indigenous kelp farmers will be specifically tailored to their unique agricultural and market conditions, including financial forecasting, iterative business design, and targeted capital sources. Ultimately Alaska Native farmers will own the means to cultivate, process, and sell high-value kelp to a robust market for both bulk and value-added products./p>

Boat, Land, and Building Fund

Reclaiming Indigenous ownership and building toward regenerative futures.

Boats: High Speed Landing Craft Marine (LCM)s for Alaska

Native Conservancy, in partnership with NDN Collective, intends to start a boat company to design and build high speed aluminum Landing Craft Marine (LCM) vessels for ocean stability, multi-purpose service vessels, rescue missions, and for versatility in the ocean, for the future. These cutting-edge LCM vessels will be designed for both shallow- and deep-water applications with above-deck work spaces (for easy loading and unloading), removable and/or spider cabins (raised cabins for full deck access), economic fuel efficiency and made for big payloads, easy ocean work with powerful hydraulic gates (on bow) for landing on Alaska’s remote, rough and rugged coastlines. Custom hulls will be made for choppy or rough ocean conditions and be powered by bio-diesel, fuel-efficient gas outboards and eventually electric engines to run jet units and/or high performance lower units. Custom aluminum vessels will also include boats for subsistence, recreational, and commercial fishing purposes in Alaska.

Institutions - Spruce Root Loan Fund

Indigenous Ocean Farmers Fund

Native Conservancy is in the process of forming an Indigenous Ocean Farmers fund to provide long-term, low-interest deferred-payment loans for future kelp farmers, matched with grants to defray startup costs and remove financial barriers to entry into the kelp mariculture space.

Spruce Root Background/Next Steps

Background

Spruce Root is a 501(c)3 nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (initially funded by Sealaska Corporation) that promotes economic development by providing access to small business loans and business advisory services. Partnering with Spruce Root will provide a conduit for future Native kelp farmers to utilize both the funding and resources they provide, in alignment with Spruce Root’s mission to assist Southeast Alaska’s people, businesses, and communities in reaching their full potential and long-term economic, social, and environmental resilience - www.spruceroot.org

Next Steps

Native Conservancy is currently engaged in planning with Spruce Root Executive Director Alana Peterson. Partnering with Spruce Root directly will enable NC to engage potential kelp farmers, assist with loan and grant applications, and ensure that their direct startup and permitting costs are covered, as well as costs associated with harvesting, processing, and product development. The urgency of getting Native-owned kelp farms permitted and in the water cannot be overstated; removing financial barriers to entry will allow Native farmers to establish small businesses and participate competitively in a kelp mariculture industry currently dominated by larger corporate interests.