It was at very short notice that I changed the programme of my official
visit to Iceland in order to address the conference on an important issue
for Greenland. Unfortunately, I will not be able to participate in the
panel discussion later this afternoon.
Greenland is a member of the IWC together with the Faroe Islands and
Denmark, Iceland is not. The global environmental conference in Rio in
1992, adopted many good principles that we work to achieve. In one of the
Rio-papers it is stated that the IWC is responsible for the management
of whales. Almost everybody who quotes this, ends the citation at that
point. This is an erroneous quotation because the sentence continues as
follows: "...pursuant to the 1946 International Convention for the
Regulation of Whaling." Our whaling quotas are negotiated at the IWC. We cooperate with the
IWC and have presented a massive amount of reports to the IWC about our
whaling.
We presume that the IWC will treat us fairly to avoid the Makah-Indian
situation. In doing so, we will not be pushed to look for other parties
to cooperate with in the near future.
Many of us have been fighting for a long time for the principle that
the conservation and sustainable use of seals and whales, is in no way
different from the conservation and sustainable use of other living resources.
I believe that we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I think that the drift to enforce upon other people one's own emotional
attitudes (by the way this drift is not legitimate according to the Rio-principles)
gradually will yield to respect for the right of other people to live their
lives in harmony with nature.
The Rio paper does not say anything about responsibility for the management
of whales if the IWC does not follow the articles of the 1946 Convention,
and thereby does not follow its own rules.
I believe that this issue will be taken up later today, and I'm sure that
some interesting answers will be given.
As you are well aware, Greenland is placed under the category of "Aboriginal
Subsistence Whaling" in the IWC. Some see this category as a living
whaling museum. We do not! We do not export the whale meat, but use our
whale resources internally in Greenland, as we use our fish resources.
We eat the whale meat, blubber and mattak and sell the surplus that we
cannot eat ourselves to our neighbours or neighbouring town. The income
is spent on modern and efficient killing methods. One shot amounts to about
1000 US dollars.
I wish you a productive conference.