Råstofaktiviteter og natur - og miljøhensyn i Grønland

The relevant paragraphs of this act are in general in agreement with
the two Greenlandic acts regarding nature conservation and environment
regulation.
According the Nature Conservation Act twelve areas in Greenland
are protected, thirteen areas are designated as seabird breeding
sanctuaries and activities are regulated near and at seabird breeding
colonies in the breeding season. The largest of the nature conservation
areas is the National Park of North and East Greenland. Generally,
activities related to mineral and petroleum exploration and exploitation
are allowed in the nature protected areas and regarding nature
and environment protection measures they are regulated by the Minerals
Act.
Two of these protected areas are also protected by international agreements:
The National Park is an UNESCO Man & Biosphere Reserve
and the Ilulissat Icefjord is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Further
eleven areas are designated according to the Ramsar-convention, although
not yet implemented in the national legislation.
Greenland or Denmark (on behalf of Greenland) has ratified international
conventions regarding environmental issues: Kyoto, MARPOL,
OSPAR, London are the most important. The regulations according to
these conventions are more or less implemented in national Greenland
legislation and in the approval procedures maintained by the
Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum of the Greenland Home Rule (guidelines,
regulations, standard terms, model licences etc.)
Conflicts with petroleum and mineral activities depend naturally of
extent and duration. In general, impacts on nature and environment
from prospecting and exploration activities will be of temporary and
reversible character, and can be mitigated by strict regulation based
on thorough biological background knowledge from the area in focus.
Exploitation activities will usually give much more persistent conflicts
with nature and environmental conservation interest. Impacts
on animal population level or on biodiversity may be the result and
they have the potential to be of a irreversible kind. However, depending
of the type of the activity, impacts may be localised to limited
areas. Many of these conflicts may be minimised to acceptable levels
by careful authority regulation. Impacts from exploitation activities
depend on the extend. For example will the impacts on nature and
environment from a small gold mine – like Nalunaq in South Greenland,
recently opened – be limited and rather simple, while impact
from a large oil field have the potential to be much more complicated,
extensive and cumulative.
The most serious conflicts will arise if a large marine oilspill reach the
Greenland coast. Impacts have the potential to be long-lasting and
may affect even on ecosystem-level. Oilspill impacts are difficult to
mitigate and combat, when the accident has occurred. It is therefore
very important to reduce the risk of oilspills for example by the Health-Safety-Environment-efforts
of the companies.
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