CASE STUDY


More than any other animal, the polar bear, Ursus maritimus, is recognized as the symbol of the Arctic. With white fur and a sub-skin blubber providing insulation, the polar bear has adapted to live in severe cold conditions. The polar bear finds the majority of its prey on the sea ice – mostly seals1


5 Polar bears . I


under the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears (see below) in the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Alaska (USA), and in parts of eastern Russia (Chukotka area). In the Norwegian Arctic and western Russian areas, polar bears are protected from all forms of harvest except problem or defensive kills2


. II


Today, the annual harvest is between 500 and 700 bears (2–3% of the world population) and is thought to be sustainable2


.


However, over-harvest is an ongoing concern for many polar bear populations, particularly in areas where there is no information on population size2


.


Polar bears are important in traditional cultures. Inuit and other peoples hunt them for their meat, which is used for human consumption or dog food, and the skins are used for clothing or other purposes. The financial return from the sale of polar bear hides is important income. In Canada, sport hunting of polar bears occurs and this forms a part of the quota assigned to some communities2


.


Polar bears were also hunted by wintering trappers in the Norwegian Arctic, and after the 1950s by trophy hunters in Alaska and Svalbard. Polar bear hunting is still permitted


72 PROTECTING ARCTIC BIODIVERSITY


During the mid 1960s, reliable data on numbers of polar bears was lacking. According to the literature at the time, world numbers were thought to range between 5,000 and 19,000 polar bears3 mentioned4


, although numbers as high as 25,000 were , which above all confirmed that such figures could only be considered as “guesstimates.”


International cooperation and research on polar bears started in earnest with the establishment of the Polar Bear Specialist Group under the IUCN in 1968. An important issue discussed was whether polar bears belonged to one common population, which was constantly migrating around the Arctic Basin, or existed within several discrete populations, some of which could be shared between two or three nations. One common world population would require cooperation and agreements


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100