Campaign launched to save Greenland's seabirds
Thursday, 01 May 2008 00:01
Kittiwakes are under threat from hunting during March in Greenland
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International campaigners are meeting today to put pressure on Greenland's government to stop bird hunting during March.
Hunting was banned between February and autumn in 2001 but since then hunters have lobbied for easing of restrictions, resulting in hunting during March in 2004 and 2008.
Environmental groups want the ban to be maintained in future, arguing that seabirds need time to breed and recover their numbers.
They say thousands of birds were killed this spring as a result of the extra month of shooting, including kittiwakes, eider ducks and Brunnich's guillemots.
Greenland used to have 100,000 seabird colonies but now has just a few thousand because of hunting and egg collecting.
About 2,000 of Greenland's 10,000 hunters depend on sales of seabird meat at town and city markets.
Campaigners say the rest hunt for pleasure, using powerful speedboats and semi-automatic guns.
A special taskforce involving politicians, conservationists and hunters will meet today to try and resolve the conflict.
"Seabird numbers are nowhere near the level you could call sustainable and the decision this year to allow more birds to be killed is a tragedy," said Hasse Hedemand of the Greenland conservation group Timmiaq.
"Greenland is a unique and special place but our international reputation is being tarnished by this unsustainable hunting."
In a letter to Greenland's Cabinet, RSPB chief executive Graham Wynne said: "The record of seabird protection in Greenland… is a story of the destruction of nature through an unwillingness to manage hunting, resulting in seriously damaged populations of many seabird species."
