Management of living resources as a key factor in the settlement patterns

Discussing how resource management interacts with socio-economic and socio-cultural stainability and the settlement patterns based on studies in Upernavik district, Greenland.
Upernavik with barely 3,000 inhabitants is a traditional hunting district, where most of the population live in the 10 small settlements scattered across the 400 km of coastline. The district was considered as poor and without development potentials, but because of the halibut fishery that developed in the 1990s, the district has gained a crucial role in Greenland's export income. However this has had little impact on the average taxable income in the district. Most of the population has continued the hunting of marine mammals as the primary livelihood, while fishing for most forms a secondary occupation. As the income from hunting is rarely included in the official financial records the local people are perceived as poor by the central government. In a combined effort to maximize tax income from fishing for halibut and provide labor for the expected mining industry the governance has changed the allocation of quotas for halibut in favor of larger boats. This promotes the boats typically coming from the southern districts, and challenges the district's socio-economic balance and thus the existing settlement patterns.