New environmental protection measures for Greenland

Greenland’s environment minister, Alfred Jakobsen, says Greenland’s home rule government is introducing new measures to protect wildlife. In an interview in the most recent edition of the World Wildlife Federation’s Arctic Bulletin, Jakobsen called media reports of over-harvesting in Greenland “exaggerated.”

Jaboksen said Greenlanders have managed their muskox and caribou herds successfully and boosted stocks.

New “drastic reductions” in the harvests of all bird species are, however, in store for Greenlanders. As well, the spring hunting season of guillemots will be shortened by several months.

Jakobsen said Greenlanders’ dependence on living resources would ideally be reduced.

“This can only be done by creating alternative incomes. Some of our communities have just 100 to 150 residents – you cannot tell these people to stop hunting without providing an alternative,” Jakobsen said.

<