Sustainable Blue Arctic (Seal) Hunting

• Published in: Nordicum-Mediterraneum
• Main Author: Federica Scarpa
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The University of Akureyri 2021
• Subjects: european union; inuit; sustainable blue economy; hunting; seal hunting; envir; scipo; Arctic; greenlandic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.33112/nm.16.4.3

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’ and Inuit associations’ 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”, formally elaborated in 2009, was grounded on the acknowledgment that Inuit hunt, as traditionally – 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. 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. “Economia circolare”, “resilienza delle comunitá costiere”, “produzione alimentare sostenibile”, e, piú in generale, un approccio economico che dia prioritá a sostenibilità 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 é considerata fondamentale per il conseguimento degli obiettivi ...