Summary

 

This report is a contribution to the future nature and fauna management in the Northeast Greenland National Park. The report has been prepared in accordance with the "Strategy Plan for the Northeast Greenland National Park/Biosphere Reserve" adopted by the Greenland Government in autumn 2004. The report also encompasses the area south of the national park down to latitude 70º N. The report largely deals with biological aspects.

 

The main elements of the report are:

• A brief overview of management of national parks and reserves in Arctic areas of Canada and Alaska and on Svalbard.
• An overview of the main pressures that can be expected to result from activities in the area, and of the tools that can be utilised to minimise negative impacts on nature and the fauna.
• An overview of the occurrence of the most important animal species in the area.
• Sensitive areas.

 

The most important negative pressures are disturbance of the fauna and wear on vegetation. The greatest impact is to be expected in connection with raw materials activities and the establishment of large tourism bases and similar facilities of a more permanent character.

 

The report is accompanied by a CD-ROM containing nature- and fauna-related GIS themes. The Greenland Home Rule will be able to use these themes in its future management efforts in order to identify management conflicts in specific areas. Such conflicts can often be minimised through appropriate temporal and spatial planning of the projects. In accordance with the wishes of the Greenland Department of Environment and Nature, all the GIS layers are in MapInfo format.

 

The report stresses the importance of identifying particularly important core areas for nature and the fauna. In particular, efforts should be made to ensure sufficient knowledge to enable assessment of the environmental impact of specific activities. The report identifies 15 areas that are considered to be particularly important on the basis of existing knowledge. In general, knowledge of the national park is very limited. In the identified areas in particular, background surveys need to be performed and our knowledge updated before any major activities are initiated.

 

Full report in pdf format (13,180 kB).