Abstract
This article studies the participation of stakeholders in climate change decision-making in Alaska’s
National Parks. We place stakeholder participation within literatures on environmental and climate
change decision-making. We conducted participant observation and interviews in two planning workshops
to investigate the decision-making process, and our findings are three-fold. First, the inclusion of
diverse stakeholders expanded climate change decision-making beyond National Park Service (NPS)
institutional constraints. Second, workshops of the Climate Change Scenario Planning Project (CCSPP)
enhanced institutional understandings of participants’ attitudes towards climate change and climate
change decision-making. Third, the geographical context of climate change influences the decisionmaking
process. As the first regional approach to climate change decision-making within the NPS, the
CCSPP serves as a model for future climate change planning in public land agencies. This study shows
how the participation of stakeholders can contribute to robust decisions, may move climate change
decision-making beyond institutional barriers, and can provide information about attitudes towards
climate change decision-making.