Greenland's Hunters Decide What Gets Counted

Piniakkanik Sumiiffinni Nalunaarsuineq — documentation and management of living resources — inverts the usual order of Arctic science. Local Resource Councils made up of hunters, fishers and other residents decide themselves which species and conditions matter enough to record in their district, then log observations of seals, whales, fish, birds and sea-ice cover through the season. The records are compiled into an open database and, crucially, feed into actual resource management: councils can propose adjustments to the authorities on the strength of what their own members have seen. It works because the observers are on the water year-round rather than for a summer field season, and because their knowledge is treated as evidence rather than colour. PISUNA has become a standard tool in Greenland for communities to document and argue about what is changing.