The Piniariarneq Project: Inughuit hunters map their important hunting areas

• Main Authors: Johansen, Kasper Lambert, Flora, Janne, Oberborbeck Andersen, Astrid, Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter, Mosbech, Anders
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Climate change; Inughuit
• Online Access: https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/the-piniariarneq-project-inughuit-hunters-map-their-important-hunting-areas(7b4b1d67-264f-4e0f-a0ba-733aa193cef3).html; http://conferences.au.dk/fileadmin/conferences/2017/NOW/NOW_Conference_web_14nov_Final.pdf

Presently, Greenland is the scene of an extensive mapping of key habitats of important plants and animals, biodiversity hotspots, and ecosystem functioning, the results of which are to inform spatial planning processes to mitigate the effects climate change and an anticipated increased industrialisation of the High Arctic in the near future. Mapping of important resource areas of local, human communities have also been conducted on numerous occasions, but has generally received much less attention, and often results from such efforts are difficult to integrate with biological data. Here, we will present the results of a collaborative GPS tracking project in which seventeen occupational hunters from the NOW region documented their hunting trips during 13 months in 2015-16. The hunters were equipped with a handheld GPS device with a custom-made application (app) named Piniariarneq (hunting trip). This app allowed them to record detailed information on individual hunting trips, which beyond the route itself, included means of transportation, the composition of the hunting party, catches and observations of animals, as well as anything else the hunter found relevant to document through geotagged written notes, photographs and video footage. Based on these data, we will show how the hunters’ use of the landscape changed through the seasons in 2015-16, highlighting their important resource areas. Data resulting from Piniariarneq are in many respects compatible with spatial biological data, better facilitating integrated analyses and assessments of important areas across traditional disciplinary boundaries. We argue that an approach like Piniariarneq has the potential to contribute to a better integration of local hunting and fishing areas in spatial planning processes, and not least to a better rooting of knowledge production on these matters in the local communities.