Introduction, Danish Environmental Protection Agency

Greenland

Introduction

By the Danish Environmental Protection Agency

The publication "Greenland - a modern society - on housing, energy and public health" follows up on "The Danish-Greenlandic Environmental Cooperation - twelve stories about environmental projects in Greenland" published by the then Ministry of the Environment and Energy in 2001. The earlier publication described a number of projects in Greenland supported by Environmental Assistance to the Arctic, mainly concerning utilisation of Greenland's flora and fauna and environmental protection. This led naturally on to the idea of also describing a number of supported projects within other sectors - projects that to a greater extent concerned modern Greenland society, but with particular focus on housing and the supply side.

The Environmental Protection Agency therefore asked the author of the first publication, environment journalist Hans Pedersen, to write another, but with a different focus. In addition, Rasmus Ole Rasmussen, Senior Lecturer at Roskilde University Centre, has written an article on sustainable sheep farming in south Greenland, which is included since the theme of the publication is precisely sustainable development - in housing, the supply sector and public health. The various articles therefore necessarily cover broader issues than can be directly related to individual supported projects, and there is also necessarily some degree of personal interpretation and evaluation by the authors.

Therefore, besides providing information about Greenland's modern society in a fine and inspiring way, the publication must inevitably be seen as a contribution to the public debate on current trends in Greenland. It is not intended as such, but if it leads to reflection and to a feeling of suddenly having learnt something new about Greenland, it will definitely have achieved its aim. There is a pressing need in Denmark for knowledge about modern Greenland and the rapid development Greenland society is undergoing. The publication is also being translated into Greenlandic and will be widely distributed in Greenland, so that people can see what is written about the rapidly changing society of which they are a part.

What is sustainable development in the Arctic ?

The sustainability concept normally covers three dimensions: economic and social development, and protection of the environment. That is how the concept is used in the Danish and Nordic work on the development of national strategies for sustainable development.

In the Arctic, however, there is a desire for a special, fourth dimension. In the description of its Sustainable Development Programme, the Arctic Council states that objectives must:

" … advance .. opportunities to protect and enhance the environment and the economy, culture and health of indigenous communities

….". The Arctic Council has thus broadened the concept of sustainable development by including protection and enhancement of the culture of Arctic communities in the concept of sustainable development.

Culture is related to welfare, and welfare is in turn related to the individual's control of resources in the broad sense of the word (education, work, hunting and fishing, politics, etc.). The fundamental political thinking is that lack of access to social benefits - that is benefits normally available in the Nordic welfare societies - should not necessarily be interpreted as a low level of welfare in small, isolated communities. Furthermore, the concept "traditional knowledge" is a prominent element of the Arctic perception of welfare and is thus of importance both for the social dimension and for protection of the environment and nature conservation.

The discussions on the concept of sustainable development in the Arctic have mainly concerned the management of natural resources, or lack of management; trade barriers; public health (including social diseases) and education; and broad agreement on the precise meaning of the concept seems to be lacking. However, no one disputes the need to include human activity and to assign relatively great weight to it. Human activity includes political and economic systems, cultural factors and technological development.

Sustainability in the Arctic is therefore not simply a question of adjusting the political and economic structures or rules of Arctic societies in the direction of a future sustainable development in different sectors of society. It is also necessary to include living conditions, informal groupings in the population, political and demographic resources for change, and attitudes, values and welfare priorities in the population. Here, however, the Arctic peoples and the Arctic societies in the USA and Canada, Northern Europe and Siberia are very different and have very different starting points.

It can be said that the sustainability concept in the Arctic includes a special human dimension, since the inhabitants of the Arctic are a vital resource that is undergoing rapid development generated by lifestyle and technological pressures from outside. Things are moving very fast, and the Arctic peoples must today live with the values and conditions of life of both the past and the future. They are both fishermen/hunters and wage earners. The economy is a mixed economy of cash and kind. Culture and attitudes are mixed and to some extent generationally determined.

The social relationships and changes must be brought into the sustainability discussions in a way that makes the discussions appear relevant to inhabitants and politicians in the Arctic. However, that demands an interest among the Arctic societies in understanding and influencing the trend of events, not only on their own lifestyle premises and on the basis of their own perception of culture, but also in a wider context. There must be willingness to accept change at the local level as well.

Change demands common economic, cultural and political awareness in relation to individual behaviour and mutual responsibility. In the sustainability concept in the Arctic great importance is thereby attached to the individual and his responsibility for himself and his neighbour because, in the Arctic societies, the individual bears a heavy responsibility.

Lifestyle studies show that it is difficult to transfer the Scandinavian model uncritically to Arctic societies, including Greenland. The Scandinavian model is based on a number of assumptions concerning social and economic homogeneity, parallel industrial development, and a common cultural and historical profile that do not apply in the Arctic. In parts of Greenland, the Greenlandic population has a relatively low score on such traditional indicators as education, income, quality of housing and social services, but even so, inhabitants and politicians fight for the right to live in peripheral districts in Greenland. There are thus other things that count and that must be included in a fruitful discussion of sustainability, since it is the population that ultimately manages resources and is thus responsible for over-consumption or underconsumption.

Environmenatl assistance to the Artic

Environmental Assistance to the Arctic was established in 1994 as a consequence of Denmark's accession to the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS), entered into by the eight Arctic countries with the adoption of the Rovaniemi Declaration in 1991. The reason for this was that although the Arctic has practically no sources of pollution, the region and its peoples receive and are affected by chemical pollutants that are discharged in the industrialised countries and carried to the region by wind and sea currents. Since then, the Arctic countries have adopted a number of other declarations that together form the political basis for Environmental Assistance to the Arctic.

Environmental Assistance to the Arctic is thus the economic basis for the Realm's international environmental cooperation on the Arctic and also enables solution of the special environmental problems that could not be foreseen at the time the Act on Home Rule for Greenland was passed. Under the Home Rule scheme, the Realm, i.e. Denmark, is also responsible for international agreements on trans-frontier pollution and pollution of the sea and air outside the 3-mile limit. The action is also an element of Denmark's follow-up to the Rio Declaration from 1992 on environment and development.

One of the main purposes of the AEPS is to provide the Arctic governments with scientifically based advice on necessary measures to improve the state of the environment in the Arctic. The scientific evidence is mainly procured through a joint Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), which each country is responsible for implementing in its Arctic region. Denmark is thus responsible for implementing AMAP in Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The activities include studies that cast light on the consequences of the critically high levels of environmental toxins for the populations of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Owing to the geographical extent and the special logistical problems in the Arctic, studies in Greenland are relatively costly.

Environmental Assistance to the Arctic also constitutes the economic basis for continued strengthening of the scientific work going on in the environmental field at Danish research institutions and under Greenland's and the Faroe Islands' environmental administrations and, through that, to some extent also for the implementation of international agreements and obligations. Projects carried out up to the present time include the consequences of climate change and ozone depletion; mapping physical and biological conditions in the waters off west Greenland for use in connection with oil emergency planning; utilisation of the population's local knowledge in connection with the professional biological advisory services; and the importance of tourism and raw material extraction for nature and the development of society. The results help to ensure sustainable utilisation of Greenland's living resources, biodiversity and unique landscape and they provide a basis for strengthening Greenland's environmental legislation, public information, and education.

In accordance with the AEPS on protection and rehabilitation of the Arctic environment, regular activities are carried out to improve and conserve the local environment and foster environmental awareness and action in Greenland. These activities include developing technological solutions to specific environmental problems in Greenland, including waste management and ensuring clean drinking water, developing environmental standards for the oil and mining industry, mapping things left behind after earlier exploration for mineral resources, military activities, expeditions, etc., and clarifying and incorporating Greenlandic factors in the preparation and implementation of international agreements and conventions. The initiatives are usually in the nature of pilot or demonstration projects and can, for example, cover physical installations, information activities and administrative tools. They are practically oriented initiatives implementing joint declarations by the Home Rule Government and the Danish Government.

Denmark's Environmental Assistance to the Arctic is administered by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency in consultation with the Advisory Committee for the Arctic, which is chaired by the former Member of Greenland's Cabinet (Landsstyret), Marianne Jensen.

The Environmental Protection Agency also approves the sector programme for environmentally friendly, low-energy housing refurbishment in Greenland based on a government agreement with the Home Rule Government of Greenland from 1999. In accordance with the provisions of Finance Act, the Environmental Protection Agency evaluates the programme and its progress together with the Danish Energy Agency with a view to presentation to the Advisory Committee for the Arctic. The programme runs until the end of 2003.

Environmental Assistance to the Arctic thus provides grants for a wide range of activities that help to create a more sustainable development in the parts of the Realm that lie in the Arctic. The action is long-term and is based on close institutional cooperation between the Danish Ministry of the Environment and the Home Rule Governments in Greenland and the Faroe Islands. With this publication it is hoped that some of the results will reach a wide circle and will also be put in a broader context. In this connection, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency wishes to send special thanks to the people who have agreed to be interviewed for the publication.