An Overview of Alaska's Natural Assets - Main Report and Research Summary

Abstract

Alaska’s natural assets kept Native people alive for centuries, drew fortune-hunters here in the 1800s, and sustain the modern economy. But what are all these “natural assets,” how abundant are they, and what is their value? The Alaska Conservation Alliance contracted with ISER to sketch the big picture of Alaska’s natural assets—ranging from spectacular scenery to huge petroleum and coal deposits to habitat for a big share of the world’s migrating waterfowl. This report is a broad overview of the abundance, status, and value of Alaska’s primary natural assets. These assets include all aspects of nature that provide some benefits, services, income, or value. These benefits include life support services such as water storage, regulation of the chemical composition of the atmosphere, and cycling nutrients through the food chain. The natural environment provides valuable raw materials such as oil, trees, and minerals that we make into products. We also relyon nature for fish, crops, livestock, and wild animals that we consume as food. Nature is also a valuable resource for non-consumptive use. For example, we enjoy outdoor recreation such as camping, hiking, picnicking, viewing wildlife, and skiing. These non-consumptive uses of nature enrich our lives and are the basis for much of the Alaska tourism industry.In Part II of this report we identify and describe major components of our natural assets. Because this is an overview, we take a broad look at many aspects of our natural assets and pass quickly across a lot of detail. In Part III of this report, we look more closely at why these assets are valuable and present methods to estimate the monetary value of selected natural assets.