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

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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

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

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

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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

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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