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  Greenland Tourism Development and Environmental Protection

Jørgen SØNDERGAARD - Greenland Government, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

Ladies and gentlemen !

Thank you for inviting me to this conference.

 

What / Where is Greenland.

Where are we - geographically speaking?

It seems appropriate to begin by showing you the location I am going to talk about. To most of you, the term Greenland probably evokes certain associations. Something I have heard before. They could be the North Pole, Santa Claus, Polar bears. But one thing is certain. To many people, Greenland represents icebergs and an abundance of snow.

The population of and distances in Greenland

Greenland would be able to hold Europe within its borders, but has only 53,000 inhabitants. We always say that we are one country, but in my opinion it is better to use the image that the population of Greenland live in various towns and settlements adhering to the outer rim of a large ice cap - actually, more than 50 insular communities of varying sizes.

2,670 km lengthwise, and 740 KM across. 2.175.600 square km. 85 % covered

Roads are only roads up to a town boundary. Well, in sourthern Greenland you have roads between some sheepfarms, but thats all. From there, you have to travel by boat or ship, and nowadays, to a large extent, by aircraft or helicopter.

Comments on the various means of transport

The traditional means of transport are boats and ships.

The Inuit - the population of Greenland - have used skin boats and kayaks from way back in history, and the Norsemen - the Vikings who came to Greenland more than 1000 years ago - used wooden ships.

The development of modern Greenland in the first three quarters if this century was also based on both supply and passenger ships. Today passenger transport to and from Greenland is based on aircraft, and the same applies to the major part of domestic transport.

An example : A trip from Copenhagen to Godhavn : SAS to Soender Stroemfjord- Greenlandair (DASH 7) to Jakobshavn - Helicopter to Godhavn.

2. Greenland Home Rule. What does it mean ?

Denmark or the Kingdom of Denmark does, in fact, consist of three different peoples in three separate parts of the Kingdom. There is Denmark - which is a member of the European Union. There are the Faeroe Islands in the North Atlantic and Greenland, which we have just seen on the map, and which is really part of North America.

Greenland as a part of Denmark goes back to 1772, when the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway, then one kingdom, "rediscovered" Greenland.

Rediscovered ; because already in the 10th century, the Vikings settled in Iceland and discovered Greenland.

Next year, Greenland will be celebrating the millennium of the discovery of Vineland by Viking chieftain Leif Erikson - as seen from a European perspective. Vineland, which was later on known as North America.

Since 1979 Greenland has enjoyed internal autonomy under the Kingdom of Denmark. This means that all domestic issues - with the exception of police and judicial matters - are regulated by laws promulgated by the Greenland parliament (31 members). Public administration is headed by a government composed of a premier and six ministers.

Greenland's economy is based on fisheries, with shrimp fishing as the dominant industry. It is supplemented by other kinds of fishing, of which fishing for Greenland halibut is particularly important. Fishing has replaced sealing, among others, as an important economic factor. The sealing industry has never recaptured the economic importance to society that it held before the anti-sealing campaign in the late 1970s.

Approximately 62 % of the public budget comes from the Danish state in the form of block grants under the agreement on Home Rule of 1979. Other revenues of the Greenland Home Rule authority are direct and indirect taxes, levied by the Greenland authorities themselves, as well as compensations from the European Union for fishing rights under the agreement made when Greenland resigned its membership of the European Community in 1985.

More details of Greenland's economy are available from OECD's country report, Spring 1999.

The Nordic countries and Greenland.

From the capital Nuuk, I have selected a picture of the Greenlandic Culture Centre, because it symbolises the cooperation between the Nordic countries in which Greenland participates as a member of the Nordic Council (the parliamentary assembly) and the Nordic Council of Ministers (the governmental cooperation).

Normally, Greenland's foreign-policy interests are handled by the Danish Foreign Ministry, but, in the Nordic cooperation, Greenland acts independently.

The environment in the Arctic region.

Before we look at the tourism or its importance to the environment in Greenland as such, it may be a good idea to say a few words about the general state of the environment.

The state of the environment in the Arctic region is generally excellent.

The environment is clean. We have to look towards Arctic Russia to find serious environmental problems in the Arctic region. (The Kola Peninsula - the nickel works etc., and the radioactivity, which poses a potential threat from closed-down military installations and the Russian fleet).

This allegation is substantiated in the reports from the Arctic Monitoring and Assesment Programme (AMAP) prepared by the eight countries around the North Pole in the period 1991-1997.

3. The environment in Greenland

As elsewhere in the world, the environmental concept is divided into two issues, namely

(a) the relationship between nature and developments, the state of the wildlife and preservation-worthy man-made historical relics, and

(b) the attitude to pollution: smoke, noise and garbage (Waste).

As regards the latter issue, the first priority is to manage the waste produced by human activity. In this connection it is important to bear in mind that Greenland has to import all goods except the foodstuffs produced or hunted/fished in the country.

Whale, seal, fish, reindeer, sheep and fowl.

This means that modern Greenland produces relatively much ordinary waste, which requires management. (Everything is packed for transport by ship or air). It follows that tourists' consumption of goods and services is a contributing factor to the increase in waste volumes.

On the other hand, this also means that the systems developed for waste management etc. have no problems in disposing of the waste resulting from the development in the tourist industry. Because we live under Arctic conditions, even ordinary household refuse decomposes slowly in e.g. traditional refuse dumps. Therefore Greenland has chosen the strategy of waste disposal by means of incinerator plants and, in large towns, to use the excess heat from these plants for heating private dwellings.

Hazardous waste is returned to Denmark for disposal, because they have incinerator plants specifically constructed for this purpose. Metal waste is also sent to Denmark for reprocessing.

But what about the use we make of nature ?

This question concerns both

(a) how many persons should be allowed into certain areas, and

(b) how these persons treat nature.

Today we have only a few locations where the number of persons in a given area puts too great a strain on nature, for, generally speaking, we cannot complain of being cramped for space!!! But the government has a policy aim intending us to achieve an annual foreign-tourist figure that will equal the population of the country, namely 55,000. When we take into account that the citizens of Greenland also make frequent use of nature, it is bound to give problems if we do not take precautions before it is too late. But before we look at the interaction between tourism and the environment, a few words about the general tourism policy.

4. The development of tourism in Greenland.

There was no organised and politically calculated tourist policy until after 1990. Before that time, tourism was fragmentary and of a limited extent. The infrastructure - transport, hotels and organisations - was very insufficient.

At a rough estimate, Greenland was visited by 3,500 regular tourists in 1991.

The policy aim set up in 1992 was that the tourist industry was to provide a turnover of DKK 500 million in 2008. Last year we had about 16.000 turist.

The politicians in Greenland chose to establish a tourism development company owned by the government - Greenland Tourism Ltd. - whose task was to strengthen the set-up and development of a tourist sector in Greenland. Greenland Tourism was granted enough funds to

(a) allow it to market Greenland abroad on lines similar to those of other countries' tourist boards, and

(b) allow it to subsidise the set-up of a local tourist industry in Greenland.

5. Sustainable development in the tourism sector.

Nature tourism management

I have already touched on the geography of the country and the travel routes of the tourists. If we disregard the pleasure cruise tourism from abroad, then, as mentioned earlier, everybody comes to Greenland by air. There is no frontier with uncontrollable motorcar traffic or a large archipelago like the Åland Islands close to large cities, such as Stockholm and Helsinki.

The travel distances also mean that relatively many tourists - today almost all tourists - go on package tours in which airline tickets and hotel or other accommodation are included as a basic part of the total package. This also applies to conference and meeting travels, where organisations or companies may offer unique experiences at a reasonable price in addition to the conference or meeting.

Education, authorisation and, quality standards (Brand marking)

Tourism is a new industry in Greenland, and a new industry that requires trained employees to provide the service level expected by tourists - and they have high expectations. Travelling in Greenland does not come cheap, and many people have saved for years to have the experience of a lifetime.

Training in the hotel and restaurant industry is similar in standard to what you find in the Nordic countries and Europe. but we struggle with this in our dayli practice. To remember what we learned in schooll it not always easy.

But Greenland Tourism has also organised new initiatives, such as specialised training courses, developed on the basis of ideas from Canada, among others. This is, in modern Greenlandic, called an "outfitter".

Outfitters

An outfitter is a person whose principal occupation lies somewhere else and is typically nature-related. He can be a hunter, a fisherman or a sheep farmer. But this group is often supplemented by e.g. mechanics or teachers.

An outfitter is a person who accompanies/transpot the tourist when she ventures out into nature, so that the tourist can experience nature without being in danger of getting lost or suffering injuries. We want our guests to have good experiences. The outfitter begins with an introductory course, during which she studies a wide range of subjects.

The subjects include :

• Basic knowledge of tourism
• Calculations/accounting
• Service/guiding
• Product development
• Marketing
• Environment and nature management
• "Tourist English"

From towns north of the Arctic Circle in West Greenland to settlements in East Greenland, sledge dogs form part of citylife!. Hunters use them as draught animals when they go hunting or sealing and to transport their catch home from the fishing hole on the ice.

If a dog team can draw a sledge carrying 300 kilograms of fish, it can also transport a tourist weighing 80 kg or 100 kg plus the necessary provisions, depending on the length of the journey.

Greenland Tourism A/S has therefore, together with the authorities responsible for education, organised courses for hunters, taking into consideration that not only do tourists weigh less than fish, but they also expect to be treated differently !!!

It is an advantage that fish catches freeze on the way home, but the same does not apply to tourists !!

Today safety equipment, such as emergency radios etc., is obligatory, and if you acquire just a limited knowledge of a tourist's language, you can tell him about the country when you accompany him. In some groups of outfitters the discipline among colleagues is strict, one does not leave a camp site or hunting lodge without having taken care of waste disposal etc. But then again a lot has still tp bee learned.

A dog sledge ride is a typical Greenlandic experience - and is to be warmly recommended, but there are also outfitters in other fields, such as

• sailing among icebergs, including fishing, if desired
• snow scooter rides
• hiking and mountaineering, if desired

Experience has shown us that this system works well. The system is also suitable from a financial point of view. All outfitters have other occupations, which means that they have other sources of income outside the relatively short tourist season.

The dogs primarily act as assistants during hunting and fishing, and the person hiring out snow scooters is perhaps also the owner of the adjoining small garage.

But we have conflicts !!

The dog sledge people and the snow scooter people will never become bosom friends. And please remember always to give way to dog sledges !

The generation gap and changes in attitudes are probably the terms that best describe the difference between sledge drivers and snow scooter drivers.

6. What is a tourist in Greenland supposed to do?

I have already mentioned the outfitter system. And the use of nature is the most import tourist attraction in Greenland. And it is possible to take unlimited amounts of photos and video recordings of icebergs without damaging them !

There are further alternatives for tourists with a special interest in history.

Special events

Like tourist industries in many other countries, we also try to arrange special events in Greenland in order to attract audiences with special interests. I will conclude this speech by mentioning some of them :

Garder Thorhilde's Church

The millennium of the Vikings' discovery of North America from the settlement in South Greenland will be the occasion of a big jubilee celebration, including the reconstruction of Thorhilde's Church. We hope that this will be a future attraction for our foreign visitors.

Also here, environmental and wildlife considerations enter into the planning of the entire area of South Greenland.

Arctic Circle Race

The most challenging ski race for a ski tourist. Next year marks the fourth occasion of this ski race. The Arctic Circle Race runs over 3 days and 160 km. In this connection it should be mentioned that, among the many tasks undertaken by the organisation committee and its volunteer helpers, are the environmental and clearing tasks connected with this race.

Drambuie World Ice Golf Championship in Uummannaq

One of the special things about a golf course laid out on sea ice is that"Green" is "White". It combines a sporting element with an exceptional nature experience.

Whalewatching

Whalewatching in several locations along the coast, where it is possible to watch some of the greatest sea mammals in the world, and when yuo get back to your hotel in the evening, you can have it for dinner. Where else in the world can you do that !!

What all these activities have in common is the fact that they are organised, which means that it is relatively simple to ensure their compliance with elementary consideration for nature while making use of it.

7.Hazards to future developments

• The greatest hazard to arctic nature is too many persons in too small an area each day or each week. Arctic nature is not wear-resistant.
• Today tourists have a greater tendency to venture out into nature on their own. But they do not know the conditions and can either harm the wildlife or get lost or suffer injuries.
• Cabin cruisers from abroad are an increasing problem, which the authorities are trying to solve by entering into a dialogue with these companies so that their visits to Greenland will be a fine experience for them and for the inhabitants and wildlife of Greenland.Today Greenland Tourism is the lokal partner for all cruises in Greenland warters, and we hope it can stay that way.

8. A wish for international cooperation.

When sustainable development is on the table we see at lot off different initiatives were groups try to formulate sustainable development guidelines.

Environmental organisations do this, like the WWF. Hotel people do this. In Denmark and perhaps in the near future "The Green Key" is implementer or do we choose the Green Swan, with is developed for hotels also by the Nordic Coorperaton.

From the Greenland point of view we would like to see f.ex OECD - on the govenment site - go in to this discussion an try to develop basic guidelines for sustainable development in tourism.

References

Greenland Government		www.gh.gl
Tele Greenland		www.greennet.gl
Greenland Tourism		www.Groenland-guide.gl
Santa Claus		www.santa.gl
Arctic Monitoring and Assesment programme		www.grida.no/amap
Nordic Cooporation		www.nordic.dk and www.ecolabel.no