{"id":11429,"date":"2021-12-06T16:05:37","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T16:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/?p=11429"},"modified":"2022-01-17T11:57:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T11:57:37","slug":"sustainable-blue-arctic-seal-hunting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/volume-16-no-4b-2022\/new-article-double-blind-peer-review-volume-16-no-4b-2022\/sustainable-blue-arctic-seal-hunting\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Blue Arctic (Seal) Hunting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/i><\/span> <\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Introduction\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/em>As Inuit, we don\u2019t have a choice as to whether we are part of the “Ice Economy” or the “Blue Economy”. We are the Blue Economy”, concluded Okalik Eegeesiak, former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) in her contribution to the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) magazine “The Circle” in April 2018. “As coastal people \u2013 the contribution continues –\u00a0 Inuit have lived thousands of years an intimate connection with the ocean, developing a deep and unique knowledge, which came to shape and define culture, food, transportation, language, well-being, and livelihoods” [Eegeesiak, 2018]. <\/em>In turn, and as a result of thousands of years of direct experience and being part of the Arctic Marine ecosystem, Inuit have developed a unique knowledge of the environment and wildlife inhabiting it, through which the ecosystem has been used and managed sustainably and responsibly for millennia [Eegesiak, 2018; ICC, 2021].<\/p>\n

Despite the concept of “Blue Economy” having been recently introduced, namely at the “Rio+20” UN summit of 2012 [Eikeset et.al, 2018, Siddi, 2019], the notion has rapidly come to shape policies and programs of nation-states and organizations worldwide. Possibly, the term has now as many nuances as the policies endorsing it, in fact, a common definition has not been agreed upon [Eikeset et.al, 2018]. Nevertheless, the Centre for Blue Economy pinpoints “three related but distinct meanings” underlying the different existing definitions, namely “the overall contribution of the oceans to economies, the need to address the environmental and ecological sustainability of the oceans, and the ocean economy as a growth opportunity for both developed and developing countries” [Middlebury Institute of International Studies].<\/p>\n

In May 2021, the European Union (EU), in line with its growing commitment and its growing international leading role in climate change policy, endorsed a more ambitious view for its “Blue Economy” and announced a shift from “blue growth” -endorsed in 2012- toward a “sustainable blue economy”. The new framework, which shapes and will shape the economy of the EU for the decades to come, links together two major EU policies, namely the European Green Deal<\/em>, <\/em>a set of policies initiatives with the overarching aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, and the Recovery Plan for Europe<\/em>, the EU long term economic recovery strategy. In doing so, the novel approach stresses the need to “mitigate the impacts on oceans and coasts to build a resilient economic model based on innovation, a circular economy and a respectful attitude to the ocean” [European Commission: 2021].<\/p>\n

This paper explores how key concepts now underlying the EU approach toward a Sustainable Blue economy have started entering the European legislation already four decades ago; concepts that were in fact learned by the representatives of the European institutions from the Greenlandic Government\u2019 and Inuit associations\u2019 narrative and arguments in support of Inuit seal hunting since the beginning of the seal- issue, namely in the 1980s. By analyzing one of the most controversial issues between Inuit and the EU, namely the development of the “EU Seal Regime”, this paper argues that the core of the “Inuit exception”,\u00a0 formally elaborated in 2009, was grounded on the long-standing acknowledgment (since the 1980s) that Inuit hunt, as traditionally<\/em> \u2013 or historically- conducted by Inuit, endorsed a more complex economic approach to sustainability that surpasses the notion of simple “species conservation” to embrace concepts now ascribable to resource efficiency, community resilience, sustainable and responsible food production, and a respectful attitude to the ocean. Arguably, the cruelty and inhumanity found in the killing methodology \u2013 at the core of the moral opposition upon which the Seal regime is grounded upon – is intrinsically linked to the scope(s) of the killing: commercial products derived from animals taken only for their fur to be used in luxury goods are considered ethically indefensible [Lowe, 2018] and impossible to control and redeem, and as such prohibited on moral grounds. The same commercial “luxury” products, derived from animals harvested for efficient use, first and foremost for “subsistence”- or food production-, which consequently eliminated almost any waste, while contributing to the overall economic, spiritual and cultural wellbeing of the communities involved, as put forward by the Government of Greenland and Inuit associations since the inception of the issue, “do\u00a0 not\u00a0 raise\u00a0 the\u00a0 same\u00a0 public\u00a0 moral\u00a0 concerns\u00a0 as\u00a0 seal\u00a0 hunts conducted primarily for commercial reasons”[European Commission, 2016] and in fact, were and are allowed on the commercial market. Therefore, this paper argues that a vision that links the “Inuit exception” of 2009 to a simple upright and formal compliance by the European Union to Indigenous Peoples Rights, not only fail in fully understanding the historical and complex processes that led to the adoption of the Seal regime and the Inuit exception contained within but also fail in acknowledging the fundamental and proactive theoretical contributions Inuit brought in outlining a different and more complex approach to sustainability.<\/p>\n

Bibliography <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Wegge, N.\u00a0(2013).\u00a0Politics between science, law and sentiments: explaining the European Union’s ban on trade in seal products,\u00a0 Environmental Politics, \u00a022:2,\u00a0255-273,\u00a0DOI:\u00a010.1080\/09644016.2012.717374<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abstract:\u00a0 <\/strong>This paper explores how key concepts now underlying the EU approach toward a Sustainable Blue economy have started entering the European legislation without speaking the word already four decades ago; concepts that were in fact learned by the representatives of the European institutions from the Greenlandic Government\u2019 and Inuit associations\u2019 narrative and arguments in support of Inuit seal hunting since the beginning of the seal issue (1980s). By analyzing one of the most controversial issues between Inuit and the EU, namely the development of the “EU Seal Regime”, this paper argues that the core of the “Inuit exception”,\u00a0 formally elaborated in 2009, was grounded on the acknowledgment that Inuit hunt, as traditionally<\/em> \u2013 or historically- conducted by Inuit, endorsed a more complex economic approach to sustainability that surpasses the notion of simple \u201cspecies conservation\u201d to embrace concepts now ascribable to resource efficiency, community resilience, sustainable and responsible food production, and a respectful attitude to the ocean. Therefore, it is here argued that a vision that links the “Inuit exception” of 2009 to a simple upright and formal compliance by the European Union to Indigenous Peoples Rights, not only fail in fully understanding the historical and complex processes that led to the adoption of the Seal regime and the Inuit exception contained within but also fail in acknowledging the fundamental and proactive theoretical contributions Inuit brought in outlining a different and more complex approach to sustainability.<\/p>\n

Sommario: <\/strong>“Economia circolare”, “resilienza delle comunit\u00e1 costiere”, “produzione alimentare sostenibile”, e, pi\u00fa in generale, un approccio economico che dia priorit\u00e1 a sostenibilit\u00e0 e resilienza invece che al mero sfruttamento delle risorse marine, sono alcuni dei concetti introdotti dal nuovo approccio per un’economia blu sostenibile nell’Unione Europea adottato della Commissione Europea nel Maggio 2021, cui attuazione \u00e9 considerata fondamentale per il conseguimento degli obiettivi ambientali stabiliti dal Green Deal Europeo e di quelli economici del Recovery Plan for Europe. <\/em>Tuttavia, un\u2019 approfondita analisi storico legale di una delle questioni pi\u00fa controverse tra popolazioni indigene e Unione Europea, ovvero lo sviluppo e conseguente adozione di un regime Europeo sui prodotti derivati dalla foca, suggerisce che tali concetti fossero gi\u00e1 stati implicitamente utilizzati e introdotti dal Governo Groenlandese e dalle associazioni Inuit per distinguere\u00a0 metodologie e fini della caccia Inuit dalla cosidetta caccia commerciale gi\u00e1 agli arbori degli anni \u201980. Nonostante tali concetti possano considerarsi di conseguenza alla base della cosidetta “eccezione Inuit” prevista dal regime Europeo sui prodotti derivati dalla foca, il contributo del Governo Groenlandese e delle associazioni Inuit a un concetto di approccio economico pi\u00fa sostenibile non \u00e9 mai stato riconosciuto, e anzi, la stessa caccia alla foca e il conseguente benessere economico culturale e sociale delle popolazioni Inuit \u00e9 messo a repentaglio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2200],"tags":[136,2204,1702,1770,2205],"coauthors":[1112],"class_list":["post-11429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-article-double-blind-peer-review-volume-16-no-4b-2022","tag-european-union","tag-hunting","tag-inuit","tag-seal-hunting","tag-sustainable-blue-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11429"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11438,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429\/revisions\/11438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11429"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}