SEAL OF APPROVAL: GREENLAND FIGHTS STEREOTYPES ON INUIT HUNT SPECIAL REPORT | 1 - 13 DEC. 2017 http://eurac.tv/9nQg With the support of SEAL OF APPROVAL: GREENLAND FIGHTS STEREOTYPES ON INUIT HUNT SPECIAL REPORT | 1 - 13 DEC. 2017 Greenland has launched an initiative to support Inuit http://eurac.tv/9nQg and indigenous communities in Canada and the EU to improve the perception of sealskin products. It focuses on sewing in a QR code which allows consumers to check their legality by scanning the label with their phone and learn about Inuit seal hunting and why it is environmentally sustainable. Contents Greenland gets EU’s support for Inuit seal products 4 Great Greenland CEO: seal hunting ban ‘devastating’ for Inuit communities 6 Which is more blue, Arctic sealing or the EU seal ban? 9 4 1 - 13 DEC. 2017 | SPECIAL REPORT | SEAL OF APPROVAL: GREENLAND FIGHTS STEREOTYPES ON INUIT HUNT | EURACTIV Greenland gets EU’s support for Inuit seal products By Paola Tamma | EURACTIV.com Inuit communities have relied on seals for centuries for food, clothing, and fuel. [Greater Greenland] eal hunting has been associated European Commission. trees in the Arctic), and its bones are with images of animal cruelty, In 2009, the EU implemented a used for handicraft and arts. Inuits SBrigitte Bardot hugging a seal ban on imports of sealskin products waste nothing from the seal and only pup, and environmental groups “on moral grounds”. Canada, where hunt as many as they need to eat. asking for it to be banned, which the seal hunting is a commercial activity, Under international law, EU eventually did. started a trade war in the WTO but indigenous people have the right in 2014 the latter upheld the EU ban, to secure and enjoy their own The outcome has been much to the displeasure of Inuit means of subsistence and engage in disastrous for indigenous people, communities who have for centuries traditional economic activities. Yet who traditionally live off the sea, hunted and relied on seals for food, Inuit communities have received a but Greenland is now fighting to clothing and energy. lot of bashing for their traditional turn things around by informing The seal’s blubber, a thick layer ways of life. consumers on the sustainability of of fat that keeps them warm in the Hovak Johnston, an Inuit artist Inuit seal products, in a campaign Arctic winter, is used as fuel for conducted with the support of the lighting and heating (there are no Continued on Page 5 1 - 13 DEC. 2017 | SPECIAL REPORT | SEAL OF APPROVAL: GREENLAND FIGHTS STEREOTYPES ON INUIT HUNT | EURACTIV 5 Continued from Page 4 code, allowing consumers to check (importing food, outerwear, and their legality and sustainability fuel), on the contrary, has huge from Nunavuk (Canada), recalled by scanning the label with their environmental costs. how her son was bullied for posting phone. The label will take them to a “The big problem for marine on social media a selfie wearing a page by the European Commission, mammals is pollution. But then, we traditional seal parka she made for informing them of the Inuit Europeans have to clean our own his graduation: “To take seal hunting exception to the ban. garden,” she said. away from us is quite significant – The initiative, spearheaded by you take a lot of our pride away.” Greenland, involves indigenous communities across the Arctic, and THE INUIT EXCEPTION got the European Commission’s seal of approval: In 2015, the EU recognised “The WTO recognised the the exception for Inuit and other legitimacy of the ban for seal indigenous groups, whose sealskins products for moral reasons. We can be traded legally, provided they may like it or not, but we have to are accompanied by an authorised do it. But the Commission commits certificate. to informing EU citizens of the Yet this was not sufficient to existence of this exception”, said a recover trade: the price of sealskin, spokesperson for DG ENVI. which averaged at 600dk (€80) in 2006, dropped by 60% in 2009 PROTECTING THE SEAL as a result of the ban. It has failed STARTS IN EUROPE to recover since – averaging some 280dk (around €40) in 2016. The two species hunted by Inuit A number of isolated Inuit in Greenland, the Harp Seal and communities in Greenland are the Ringed Seal, are listed as “least completely dependent on trade concerned” by IUCN’s red list of in sealskin to buy the necessities threatened species, and scientists they can’t produce. Greenland say they may have reached their is a self-governing part of the environment’s carrying capacity, Kingdom of Denmark. Currently, beyond which they can’t grow in The Greenlandic government fully numbers. subsidises the trade by buying hides But the threats to seals come from hunters. in other forms: Arctic drilling and “One of these communities has climate change, which are reducing one helicopter connection once a their habitats. Gert Polet, of the week, when the weather is good. WWF’s environment program, said: Even if we develop the way we hunt “The Arctic will look different and and process, it will never be a mass we have to take drastic steps in industry. But we do hope that one day the Arctic, managing populations it will be economically sustainable,” responsibly, but especially outside said Bjarne Lyberth, representing the Arctic, where we are emitting all Greenlandic hunters and fishers. the CO2.” The price is low and sales difficult, Genevieve Desportes, a biologist because of consumers’ weariness, with the international body for according to Ditte Sorknæs, CEO of a marine mammals in the Arctic public-owned tannery and workshop (NAMMCO), thinks Inuit seal Greater Greenland, trading in hunting is sustainable because of its sealskins since 1977. responsible harvest levels, the use of For this reason, she came up abundant local resources for local with the idea of accompanying use, and limited waste and impact Inuit sealskin products with a QR on the environment. Its alternative 6 1 - 13 DEC. 2017 | SPECIAL REPORT | SEAL OF APPROVAL: GREENLAND FIGHTS STEREOTYPES ON INUIT HUNT | EURACTIV INTERVIEW Great Greenland CEO: seal hunting ban ‘devastating’ for Inuit communities By Paola Tamma | EURACTIV.com Ditte Sorknæs, CEO of Great Greenland. t is not profitable and may never be. sealskin products since 1977. claiming it is a moral law. If you look And the EU has banned it. So why at it as a moral law, that’s where the Ishould seal hunting be supported? When a seals ban was proposed in colonialism comes in, because who Because it is a sustainable way of life 2009, your environment minister cried are these morals for? It’s definitely for Inuit people – and sometimes their out against “eco-colonialism” – are you not for the Inuit, who have lived with only one. And the way forward for satisfied with the regime now? and off the sea for centuries. So this is Greenland’s independence, says Ditte very much the European morals, if any Sorknæs. The ban itself hasn’t changed. moral at all. The foundation of the ban is wrong, We’ve had the Inuit exception Ditte Sorknæs is the CEO of Great in the sense that if you look at facts since 2010. That does make some Greenland, a Greenlandic public it doesn’t make any sense. But from company trading in sealskins and the European side, they’ve kept on Continued on Page 7 1 - 13 DEC. 2017 | SPECIAL REPORT | SEAL OF APPROVAL: GREENLAND FIGHTS STEREOTYPES ON INUIT HUNT | EURACTIV 7 Continued from Page 6 product. So if you, as a consumer, go between €1 and 2,5 million in sealskins into a store, look at a jacket, you like and sealskin products per year. The difference for us but does not change it but you have doubts – is this legal joint export has been stable in the last the big picture. or illegal? You can scan the QR code years, but the interesting bit is that the and see it is legal because it has been split between finished products and When you say that by the facts, the hunted by Inuit. skins have changed. Up until this year, ban doesn’t make sense- what do you the majority of our exports were skins. mean? Under the Inuit exception, seal hunting Ready tanned skins, but skins. is permitted provided that the hunt From this year, we see that the Say for instance the ban on trading is conducted for and contributes to finished product is a larger portion. polar bears, it does make sense the subsistence of the community We went from having a closed-down because the polar bear is a threatened and is not conducted primarily for workshop in 2015, and within two species under IUCN standards. But if commercial reasons. This leaves years we have grown to four full- you look at the two type of seals that room for interpretation – how do you time employees. That means a lot to we and other Inuit areas trade in, interpret this? the local community. Having good Harp seal and Ringed seal, they’re not work is definitely important, and I threatened at all. There’s an abundance What we’ve done in Greenland is see it growing: I expect that this time of them. One of the big issues is that actually what we’ve been doing all next year we will have six full-time there are so many that you can’t give a along. Since 1982 we have a system that employees. specific number. has been born by Great Greenland. We The second thing is you can look at are a government-owned company Is there a risk that introducing is this in any way harmful? Obviously, and we have trading stations all along certification schemes and encouraging it isn’t, we are talking about a wild the coast of Greenland, and hunters trade will pose a threat to the seal living animal that is killed for food, can trade the skins at the trading population? Are there any limits to and where the skin is a by-product.