Greenland tries to contain tourism in the face of the threat of climate change

Greenland deals with the increasingly important arrival of touristsattracted by the grandiose landscapes of this frozen island surrounded by icebergs that are already living under the effects of climate change.

“It’s a dream destination,” says Yves Glayze, a French tourist in his 60s looking to get off the beaten track.

Leaving Ilulissat Airport, the third largest city in this Danish autonomous territory, discover a landscape of rare beautywith gray rocks and icebergs in the distance.

Exceptional blocks of ice constantly come out of the nearby fjord into the open sea, where whales sometimes appear.

a limited number

These postcard scenes attracted 50,000 people in 2021, a figure ten times higher than the number of inhabitants of the port city. More than half of the tourists are crossing the Arctic and have only a short stop on the island.

The number of tourists is expected to further increase with the opening of an international airport in the next two years, which will increase the revenue of the island. but also a challenge.

This territory currently deals with the daily effects of global warming and is already faced with a delicate ecosystem.

Over the past 40 years, the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the worldaccording to the most recent study on the subject.

“We can see the consequences of climate change every day: the icebergs are smaller, the glacier is retreating,” explains the mayor, Palle Jeremiassen.

The senior official also fears the melting of the permafrost, which it threatens the stability of some infrastructures and homes.

The challenge now is to protect the local ecosystem, but without closing the doors to visitors.

“We want to control the arrival of tourist boats,” which are highly polluting, explains Jeremiassen.

Environment

To respect the community and the environment, it is necessary “a maximum of one boat per day and a thousand tourists per boat“, He says.

Three ships arrived recently the same day with 6,000 visitorsa figure too high for the mayor since the city cannot welcome them or guarantee that they respect the protected areas, especially in the fjord.

“We don’t want to be like Iceland. We don’t want mass tourism. We want to control tourism, This is the key, “he says.

Greenland has enjoyed autonomy since 2009, but he hopes one day to gain full independence from Denmark.

To do so, it would have to do without the Copenhagen subsidies, which currently a third of your budget. It has not yet found a way to remain financially independent and, for now, its main natural resource is the sea.

In Ilulissat, one in three inhabitants lives from fishingwhich accounts for most of the island’s revenue.

But climate change has a huge impact on local practices.

“When I was young, there was hard ice we could walk on,” explains Lars Noasen, sailing among the icebergs in Disko Bay.

“Now the ice isn’t that solid. You can’t use it at all, you can’t go around and go fishing like before, “she adds.

Over the past two decades, the immense Greenland ice sheet lost 4.7 billion tonswhich contributed to a 1.2cm rise in the oceans, according to Danish Arctic researchers.

And the disappearance of the ice affects the fishermen, for better or for worse.

“Ice conditions change,” says Sascha Schiøtt, a researcher at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. “The main fjord was closed off by huge icebergs and ice floes, and fishermen could not sail“What do they do now.

Boats can now go out all year round, which led to an increase in fishing activitybut the size of the fish is decreasing mainly due to overfishing.

But for Ejner, climate change is to blame. “The weather is too hot,” complains this fisherman as he prepares his fishing nets in the town’s harbor.

AFP agency

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