This week the Greenland Home Rule
Government will very likely approve a dispensation from a bird protection regulation which is only 15 months old. Additionally,
at the beginning of May, the Greenland
parliament is expected to discuss and approve these changes.
The rumours began last week and were
confirmed today (26th April) from various sources according to active members of the small Greenland
birding society Timmiaq. It is now clear that the Greenland Home Rule government plans to back-pedal on new conservation laws
and reintroduce spring hunting of seabirds.
The details are still vague as the
Home Rule is trying to keeping this controversial matter out of the public eye. But according to Greenland Radio the bird regulations will be changed in response to a proposal from a pro-hunting Greenland MP. The dispensation will allow
spring hunting of the Common Eider Somateria mollissma, probably well into May.
This change is a direct response to
ongoing pressure from Greenland hunters who bitterly oppose any restriction on hunting –
even if the affected species are threatened with extinction.
In January 2004 Greenland,
after several years of intense discussion and changes in policy and legislation
brought about by a hard-fought conservation campaign, finally approved the new bird protection legislation. These recent changes
were accepted as reasonable; and it was hoped that once and for all the destructive
spring hunt would be permanently prohibited.
The state of affairs for several bird
species in Greenland is grim. In 2002 for example, the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources
(NIR) demonstrated that Common Eiders in western Greenland had declined by 70-80 % within
the past 40 years. The main reason for this was believed to be the spring hunt in addition to illegal egg taking (which were
traditionally eaten by the native Greenlanders. Not only the Eider that is endangered Greenland.
Year long research by the NIR, as well as by the Danish Environmental Research Institute, showing that Kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla and Brunnich's Guillemots Uria lomvia are also serious
threatened.
WHAT
YOU CAN DO
As mentioned above, the detail of
the planned changes has been kept under wraps; but, according to our Greenland bird friends,
the changes are firmly planned. We now need international support in this matter. Please send your personal expression of
concern and protest by e-mail to Greenland. A
draft text is provided below if you have no time to write your own. The relevant email addresses appear below.
Since the matter is urgent please
action this today rather than tomorrow. Please also pass this message to all your contacts.
Thank you for your support!
Proact Greenland
Later this week WWF Denmark will publish a report
on the Greenlandic wildlife management. Look out for the report at www.wwf.dk
Now click on the link for the target addresses
