By Bob Weber (CP)
Canadian Inuit are outraged over a U.S. plan to use an international treaty to eliminate all trade in polar bears anywhere in the world.
They say it would cripple one of their few industries and they're calling on the federal government to step in.
"We're fighting with Goliath here," said Gabriel Nirlungyak, director of wildlife with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., which oversees the Nunavut land claim.
"We want our government to defend us."
On Friday, Tom Strickland, the United States assistant secretary of the interior, released a proposal to the 175 countries which have signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. It says polar bears should be moved to a classification that would outlaw all commercial trade in the animals.
"The proposals submitted this week will improve protections for dozens of declining species, while improving enforcement and implementation of (the convention) for many others," Strickland said in a release.
The bears are threatened by habitat loss due to melting sea ice caused by climate change, he said.
Previous moves by the American government have already killed most of the market for U.S. sport hunters by preventing them from bringing hides back with them. If the current proposal is accepted at the convention's next meeting in March, it will wipe out all other markets, said Nirlungyak.
"If this goes ahead, it will stop all sport hunts. It will be quite devastating."
Sport hunters pay up to $30,000 for the opportunity of bagging one of the world's largest land predators and Inuit hunters can get up to $150 a foot for a bear hide.
Nirlungyak said there's no evidence the animals are currently endangered and added that Canadian populations are well-managed. Canada has about two-thirds of the world's 25,000 bears.
Nunavut issues a total of 518 tags yearly for both subsistence and sport hunts, although not all the tags are used. The territorial government is seeking to reduce some of those quotas, although Inuit hunters are resisting those moves.
The latest data suggests eight of the world's 19 subpopulations of bears are decreasing, three are stable and one is increasing. Not enough is known about the other seven to assign a trend.
Nirlungyak points out that trade in no other species has been banned under the convention on the basis of forecasts.
"There's no justification. There's no need when you look at the science. It's a political move.
"We want the Canadian government to defend us and oppose this listing."
An Environment Canada spokeswoman said in an email that Canada does not support the U.S. request to change the polar bear's status. She said Canadian representatives would lobby other countries to reject the proposal, which requires a two-thirds majority to pass.
The American proposal even surprised some environmentalists.
"Our initial analysis indicated that hunting was not the primary threat," said Geoff York, the World Wildlife Fund's director of polar bear conservation. "We were not expecting any country to advocate a proposal for polar bears on this."
York said any new protection for polar bears must have the support of the people who live with them.
"We have concerns about the impact ... on northern people," he said. "The people on the ground have to be involved with the solution."
However, Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defence Council, which lobbied for the proposal, said that any extra stress on bear populations should be eliminated as they struggle to adapt to their new climate.
"As populations start to decline, it becomes much more important to keep other factors affecting (them) to a minimum," said Wetzler. "We think that trophy hunting is inappropriate."
This year's summer sea ice reached its third-lowest level in 30 years of record-keeping.
Wetzler said the Canadian government should provide transition funding to Inuit communities to wean them off the hunting industry.
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http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/291_cites_to_eye_international_ban_on_polar_bear_trade/NEWS: Around the Arctic October 16, 2009 - 3:42 pm
CITES to eye international ban on polar bear trade
Environment Canada report could be crucialNUNATSIAQ NEWS
Inuit organizations finally woke up to speak out against a proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that could kill the polar bear sports hunt in Nunavut.
The proposal, announced Oct. 16, which would lead to a ban on trade in polar bear trophies, ignores “the demonstrated ability of Inuit to manage their own resources wisely and sustainably,” said Duane Smith, president of Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada.
The U.S. agency plans to submit its proposal to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species when the group meets in Qatar next March.
“Limiting commercial trade in this species will address a source of non-climate stress to polar bear populations, and contribute to long-term recovery,” said a news release from the wildlife agency.
Its proposal would see the polar bear moved up from CITES’s appendix II to appendix I.
Species on Appendix I are considered threatened by extinction, and CITES prohibits international trade in specimens of these species.
“Canadian Inuit are successfully managing their polar bear populations without interference from the USA government or special interest groups,” Smith said in an Oct. 16 news release.
“Canadian polar bear populations are currently healthy. If, in the future, they are threatened, the management bodies would review their processes and adjust accordingly. We should let them do their job,” Smith said.
Tourists and sport hunters who sometimes accompany Inuit in regulated polar bear sports hunts provide important income for entire communities and have no effect on the quotas set to maintain healthy bear populations, Smith said.
“The USA proposal challenges our right as Inuit to sustainably exercise our traditional rights and practices to harvest polar bears. We are becoming an endangered species ourselves.”
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. also sent out a news release on Oct. 16, noting its opposition to the U.S. proposal to up-list the polar bear’s status.
“If the proposal is passed, it will have a devastating effect on our communities. Inuit understand the importance of conservation of the polar bear because the animal is so important to our society, culture and economy, the same was the automobile is to the American society and economy,” said NTII vice-president Raymond Nincheocheak.
“We do not want to be further restricted beyond the quota systems that we have been participating in now for a number of decades,” said Mary Simon, the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, in an ITK news release, also issued Oct. 16.
But none of these groups acknowledge that an upcoming report from Environment Canada will also play into CITES’s eventual decision whether or not to support the U.S. proposal that would stop international trade in all polar bear trophies.
Under CITES, Environment Canada is responsible for evaluating whether the export of a species from Canada will be detrimental or not to its survival in the wild.
Its report, referred to as a “non-detriment finding,” is not supposed to be affected by socio-economic considerations — even if the value of the sports polar bear hunt to Nunavut has been estimated at about $2.9 million each year.
The department may decide make a negative “non-detriment finding” to CITES on the export of polar bear trophies from some polar bear populations in Nunavut — such as the Baffin Bay, where environment minister Jim Prentice wanted the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board to recommend a lower quota.
Canada would be in a much stronger position to argue against the proposal if it looks as if Canada is “managing issues of conservation concern such as overharvest,” Prentice wrote the NWMB.
Environment Canada has to make a positive recommendation on the impact of the polar bear hunt in certain areas of Nunavut for Canada to legally issue an export permit for polar bear products, including skin, fur, claws, skulls and stuffed animals, from those areas.
A negative “non-detriment finding” would mean that the trade in these hides and trophies may harm the species’ survival.
CITES rulings already restrict the trade of 800 species close to extinction, such as tigers, great apes, certain parrots, certain species of orchids and cacti, and some timber species.
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http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/wildlife_groups_commend_interior_halt_polar_bear_trade_101609.htmlWildlife Groups Commend the Interior Department for Seeking to Halt Polar Bear Trade
October 16, 2009
Trade in Polar Bear Skin Rugs and Other Parts Threatens the Species
WASHINGTON — The Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, International Fund for Animal Welfare and Defenders of Wildlife applaud the United States Department of the Interior for submitting a proposal to next year's meeting of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to stop the international trade in polar bears. The meeting is set for March 13-25 in Doha, Qatar.
"By submitting this proposal, the United States is, once again, leading the way to save this magnificent species from extinction. International trade in polar bear parts and products is exacerbating the devastating impact that climate change is already having on the polar bear. We should not be making rugs out of polar bears at a time when they are threatened with extinction," said Teresa M. Telecky, Ph.D., director of wildlife for Humane Society International, the global affiliate of The Humane Society of the United States.
There are presently between 20,000 and 25,000 polar bears and the number is decreasing.
"On May 8, 2009, Secretary Salazar said that he and President Obama were fully committed to protecting polar bears, and that we must do everything we can to eliminate all threats to the species. With this laudable action, they are making good on that commitment. By uplisting the species at the next CITES conference, the U.S. will help prevent the deaths of hundreds of polar bears killed needlessly for the commercial market," said Jeff Flocken, D.C. office director, International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Polar bears are completely dependent on sea ice, which they use for hunting prey, reproduction and movement. Ongoing atmospheric pollution is causing oceanic and atmospheric warming, leading to reductions in sea ice. Some scientists have concluded that polar bears will not survive past the end of this century due to the complete loss of summer sea ice.
In addition to hunting trophies, polar bear parts — skin, fur, claws, skulls and even stuffed bears — enter international commercial trade. More than 500 polar bear skins are traded annually; most come from Canada and most go to Japan.
In 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This ended the importation to the United States of trophies of polar bears killed by American sport hunters. Although hunters from other countries can still import trophies, the United States was by far the largest importer and American trophy hunters had driven this large-scale commercial killing.
"While we cannot stop the impacts of global warming on polar bears immediately, one thing we can do is quickly address other threats which are heightening the bear's problems, such as the commercial trade. By increasing protections for polar bears under CITES, we can start to give the polar bear some more protections while we take the necessary steps to address global warming," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president, Defenders of Wildlife.
The proposal would transfer the polar bear from CITES Appendix II, which allows regulated international commercial trade, to Appendix I, which prohibits all international commercial trade in the listed species. The purpose of CITES is to prevent over-exploitation of species through international trade.
The Appendix I designation would mean that countries agree to prohibit international trade for primarily commercial purposes and thus ensure that international trade will not contribute to the ongoing decrease in polar bear numbers. Appendix I listing will not affect native subsistence hunting or use of polar bears.
-30-The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 11 million Americans, or one of every 28. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty — On the web at humanesociety.org.
Humane Society International and its partner organizations together constitute one of the world's largest animal protection organizations — backed by 11 million people. For nearly 20 years, HSI has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty worldwide — On the web at hsi.org.
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