According to KNR, Greenland will establish its first new national park in more than 50 years on June 1, creating a protected area of more than 22,200 square kilometers between Kangerlussuaq and Disko Bay.
The new West Greenland national park covers uninhabited land stretching from the edge of the inland ice toward coastal landscapes. KNR reported that the park has been developed to protect biodiversity, landscapes, wildlife, natural processes, and cultural heritage while preserving traditional local use of the area.
The location gives the announcement wider importance for Kangerlussuaq, a settlement whose role has been changing as Greenland’s new airport network shifts more international traffic toward Nuuk, Ilulissat, and Qaqortoq.
With the new national park, Kangerlussuaq gains another possible future identity: a gateway to protected inland landscapes, wildlife areas, traditional use routes, and sustainable tourism between the ice sheet and Disko Bay.
A park shaped with local input
According to KNR, the park has been developed in cooperation with Kommune Qeqertalik and Qeqqata Kommunia. The idea traces back to 2020, when the two municipalities and the Wild Nature Foundation first proposed the initiative.
Researchers, local residents, hunters, and other stakeholders contributed during the process. Public meetings were held in both municipalities, and a formal public consultation ran from December 2025 to March 2026.
Jørgen Rosbach, Greenland’s Minister for Environment, Nature, Energy and Research, described the park as Greenland’s own creation, designed to protect West Greenland’s natural values while allowing residents to continue using the area.
The balance between protection and local use is central to the park’s design. Residents will still be able to move freely through the area and continue hunting, fishing, berry picking, and other traditional activities.
In some demarcated areas, time-limited restrictions will apply to protect vulnerable species, including spotted seal, Greenland white-fronted goose, long-tailed duck, and reindeer during calving season.
Kangerlussuaq and Qeqqata’s development question
Kangerlussuaq has long served as one of Greenland’s most important aviation and inland access points. As Greenland’s airport system changes, the settlement’s long-term role has become a larger regional development question.
Malik Berthelsen, mayor of Qeqqata Kommunia, has been a visible voice in Greenland’s development discussions, including at Future Greenland, where infrastructure, tourism, local value creation, and community-led growth have been recurring themes.
The park places the area inside a broader conversation about land-based tourism, conservation, local businesses, guided travel, wildlife protection, and access to the inland ice.
Berthelsen welcomed the park as an opportunity to strengthen local tourism development in a way that aligns with local wishes and values while creating long-term value for local communities.
Sustainable tourism, not mass tourism
The park’s objectives include enabling sustainable tourism that benefits local residents, tourism operators, and the broader economy.
The project reaches beyond conservation. It touches the same questions now shaping much of Greenland’s tourism future: how to bring outside visitors into remote areas without losing local control, damaging fragile environments, or reducing communities to scenery for outside operators.
A national park between Kangerlussuaq and Disko Bay could strengthen the case for carefully managed, high-value tourism tied to local guides, local services, and local decision-making.
The challenge will be keeping that development aligned with the people who already use and know the land.
A larger West Greenland corridor
The new park stretches across a large area of West Greenland, linking inland ice, open country, wildlife habitat, and coastal environments.
Its placement between Kangerlussuaq and Disko Bay creates a conservation corridor in a region already known for ice, wildlife, tourism, and traditional use. The area includes rare and endangered species, along with landscapes that could attract growing interest as Greenland’s tourism sector expands.
Funding for much of the work has been secured through the EU’s Green Growth program, according to KNR.
The park has not yet received a Greenlandic name. A public naming competition is expected, giving citizens a chance to help define the identity of the new protected area.
Greenland already has the world’s largest national park in Northeast Greenland, covering more than 972,000 square kilometers. The new West Greenland park will be far smaller, but its location gives it a different kind of importance. It sits closer to communities, tourism routes, and active regional development questions.
For Kangerlussuaq, the significance could be real. As Greenland’s aviation map changes, the settlement’s future may be defined by a broader mix of opportunities: a managed gateway to nature, wildlife, inland access, and local tourism, alongside future potential in data centers, communications, energy, and other high-tech Arctic infrastructure.
The new national park gives that future a stronger foundation.
GreenlandEnergy.com provides independent analysis of Greenland’s energy landscape, critical minerals development, and Arctic geopolitics. For corrections or feedback: press@greenlandenergy.com
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