Workshop Announcement:
The management system related to fishing and hunting in West Greenland
Greenland Institute of Natural Resources
Nuuk, Greenland
18-20 November 2003
For more information contact:
Michael C.S. Kingsley (info [at] natur.gl) or (mcsk [at] natur.gl)
Background
The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources provides scientific advice
to the Greenland Home Rule government on the sustainable exploitation of
renewable resources and other aspects of natural resource management,
and carries out research to that and other ends.
To improve its understanding of relationships between climate,
ecosystem, and human impacts, and to meet the increasing interest in
ecosystem-based advice for management, the Greenland Institute of
Natural Resources is planning a long-term research programme: "Ecogreen
- Imaq". The focus of this research programme will be the marine
ecosystem off West Greenland, which is economically and socially most
important to Greenland society.
At a first planning workshop, held in Nuuk in late 2001 , the
programme's goal, as well as four interdisciplinary objectives for the
first five year's phase were formulated, and are now part of the
Institute's research strategy.
The goal of the research programme is
"To establish a scientific basis for a long-term ecosystem-based
management of natural resources in West Greenland waters"
and the four objectives,
- Quantify and improve understanding of physical and biogeochemical
interaction;
- Quantify and improve the understanding of ecosystem structure and
functioning;
- Identify and describe the main structural and institutional drivers
behind environmentally significant human behaviours;
- Identify and quantify interactions between human activities and the
ecosystem.
Social sciences workshop in Nuuk, 18-20 November 2003
The first workshop addressed the natural-science aspects of the
research, i.e. it focussed on Objectives 1,2 and parts of 4. In order to
focus the discussion related to Objective 3, the Greenland Institute of
Natural Resources has obtained funding from the Nordic Council of
Ministers to support a second workshop. It will be held (in English) at
the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources in Nuuk from 18 to 20
November 2003.
The workshop will be co-convened by Michael Kingsley, chief of the
Mammal and Bird Division at the Institute, technological socio-economic
planner MSc. Søren Stach Nielsen (both Greenland Institute of Natural
Resources, Nuuk), and fishery economist Prof. Dr. Jesper Raakjær Nielsen
(Institute for Fisheries Management and Coastal Community Development,
Hirtshals, Denmark).
The aim of this workshop is to identify and priorise research required for:
- understanding how the social system works in relation to fishing and
hunting;
- understanding the management institutions, as a set of rules and
values governing human behaviours relevant to the marine ecosystem off
West Greenland;
- providing input to multi-disciplinary studies on the area of
interactions between the social and natural systems, aimed at improving
the management of fishing and hunting in West Greenland.
The total number of participants in the workshop is limited by space and
by available time for discussions, and the funding we have has been
allocated. The workshop is still open to a limited number of other
colleagues interested in co-operating in a future research programme on
the management system related to fishing and hunting in West Greenland.
(A group discount for accommodation will be available and we may also be
able to make a similar arrangement for flight tickets). Interested
colleagues are encouraged to contact the conveners through
mcsk [at] natur.gl.