PâviâraK Jakobsen, who is part-time hunter and works in Kommune Qeqertalik in Greenland, tells about the locally-based monitoring system that he and his fellow fishers and hunters have established in order for the resource use to be sustainable and for them to obtain ‘a voice’ in the management of the resources.
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The interview is part of a series of short videos that explain ecological concepts and describe why it is important for conservation. The Bill Sutherland’s Conservation Concepts YouTube channel is created and managed by Bill Sutherland, Director of Ecological Research at the University of Cambridge.
The PISUNA program in Greenland was initiated by the Greenland Ministry of Fisheries and Hunting with the assistance of Nordeco and other partners. PISUNA is an attempt to address increasing frustrations about the disconnect between the scientific advice on sustainable hunting quotas, the quotas set by the decision-makers, and the actual practices of hunters. At the time, there were limited efforts to listen to the observations, knowledge and perspectives of the hunters and fishers, and scientists’ recommendations were often disregarded. To bridge this gap, PISUNA was designed to incorporate the firsthand observations and knowledge of hunter and fisher communities into the decision-making process and enhance the opportunity to come to agreements that are supported by all involved.
In 2018, the fishermen and hunters received the Nordic Council Environment Prize for their efforts to document the environmental changes in their area and to recommend management measures that should be taken.
Danish King Frederik and Queen Mary visited fishermen and hunters in Attu village in West Greenland in 2024 to see and hear about their experiences with community-based environmental monitoring. The King’s speech is found here.
The PISUNA video was prepared during a workshop in Nuuk Greenland, carried out under the auspices of the UArctic Thematic Network on Collaborative Resource Management in the Arctic, with travel support from the Danish Government; Danida (Maarifa); the EC projects FRAMEwork, ECS, BESTLIFE2030 and more4nature.