Countries urged to reject U.S. ban on polar bear trade

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Countries urged to reject U.S. ban on polar bear trade
Signatories to endangered species convention to vote on proposal in March

Thursday, February 25, 2010
CBC News

A U.S. proposal to ban the international trade of polar bear products should
be rejected, according to the secretariat of the Convention on the
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The secretariat is recommending that the 175 countries that have signed
CITES vote against the U.S. proposal, which calls for polar bears to be
reclassified as a species threatened with extinction.

If the polar bear is reclassified under CITES, it would effectively ban all
commercial sale of products derived from the animals, such as hides.

"There has to be a marked decrease in the population, and we don't believe
that the evidence is compelling in that regard," Stephen Nash, the
secretariat's chair of capacity building, told CBC News Thursday from
Geneva.

The 175 member countries, including Canada, will vote on the proposal when
they meet in Doha, Qatar, on March 13-25.

Concerns with industry impact

The proposed ban has officials in Canada, especially in Nunavut, concerned
about its impact on the territory's sport hunting industry.

Nash said contrary to Canada's concerns, the U.S. proposal, if passed, would
not shut down the polar bear sport hunt as long as hunters do not sell their
trophies.

Last month, the international wildlife trade monitor TRAFFIC said shrinking
sea ice is the main threat facing polar bears, not the trade of bear
products that are often harvested by aboriginal hunters, including the Inuit
in Canada.

"We're talking about the effects of climate change and, essentially, concern
over the amount of habitat and the quality of habitat," Nash said.

"There's actually quite a lot of debate over whether polar bear numbers are
going down, or not going down, or have changed, or what has happened.

"So, the discussions at the meeting will focus on well, what is actually
happening with populations of polar bear? Is there reason to be concerned?
Is there reason to be concerned now?"

Northerners wage campaign

Officials with the Canadian government will be going to Doha, along with
representatives from Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

N.W.T. Environment Minister Michael Miltenberger said despite the
secretariat's recommendation to reject the U.S. proposal, he is still
planning to do his own lobbying of member nations to convince them to vote
against the ban.

"The polar bear is an iconic symbol around the world, so it provokes a
strong emotional reaction, and we got to make sure we don't let emotion rule
the day," Miltenberger said.

Officials with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the territory's Inuit land-claims
organization, says it's preparing an information campaign to convince
countries to reject the U.S. proposal.

"You never know until we get there and the day that they vote for or
against," said Gabriel Nirlungayuk, Nunavut Tunngavik's wildlife director.

Nirlungayuk said he has heard the European Union might be siding with the
United States, but that still leaves many countries his organization can try
to sway.

"There are 100 other countries that we will need to reach out and hopefully
convince them that the polar bear population is not in trouble," he said.

He also noted the recommendation from TRAFFIC and other major organizations,
such as the Polar Bear Specialist Group, saying there is no need to ban the
trade of polar bear products.

The U.S. needs two-thirds of the CITES membership to vote in favour of the
proposal in order for it to pass.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/02/25/cites-polar-bears.html

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Polar bear trade ban wouldn't affect sport hunt

Friday, February 26, 2010
CBC News

Some northerners are relieved to hear a U.S. proposal to ban the
international trade of polar bear products would not affect the sport
hunting industry in Canada's North.

The United States is asking the 175 countries that signed the Convention on
the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to reclassify the
polar bear as a species threatened with extinction.

If approved, it would effectively ban all commercial sale of products
derived from polar bears, such as hides.

But officials with the CITES secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, said the
current U.S. proposal would not affect Canada's polar bear sport hunt as
long as hunters do not sell their trophies afterwards.

The possibility of an international ban led to concerns from Nunavut and
N.W.T. sport hunting guides, who are paid to take hunters out to hunt polar
bears. The guides are worried about what impact an international trade ban
would have on their businesses.

"Having polar bear sport hunters is good for us because it brings in income
for people in the community," Martha Kalluk, who runs an outfitting business
with her husband in the High Arctic community of Resolute Bay, Nunavut, told
CBC News.

Business dropped

Kalluk said their business already took a severe hit in 2008, when the polar
bear was declared a threatened species in the U.S. As a result, American
hunters were banned from bringing their polar bear hunting trophies back
home.

Kalluk said she and her husband used to lead about 20 sport hunts a year
before the 2008 ban came into place. That number has since dropped to 10,
she said, with most of their clients now coming from Canada and Europe.

Nunavut regulates its polar bear hunt, setting quotas for various groups.

Stephen Nash, the CITES secretariat's chair of capacity building, said there
are examples around the world where well-managed sport hunts can help
conserve wildlife populations, often in poor communities.

"These hunts can bring a lot of conservation benefits by bringing in a lot
of money to the communities," Nash said.

In Africa and Asia, for example, a well-managed sport hunt can actually
encourage people to take care of the species, he added.
Could reduce number of bears killed

James Goudie, wildlife manager with the Nunatsiavut government in Labrador,
agreed that sport hunting can actually reduce the number of bears killed in
an area each year.

In Nunavut, for example, each community that takes part in the polar bear
hunt gets a specific quota of hunting tags each year. Community officials
then decide how many, if any, of those tags would be used for sport hunts.

If a sport hunter does not end up taking a bear, then the tag cannot be
reused, and community members would not be able to hunt that bear.

"But if they do eradicate the sport hunt, it just goes to the overall
[hunting] quota, and chances are that bear will be killed then by a
[land-claim] beneficiary of that area."

Goudie said there are no sport hunts in Newfoundland and Labrador, and
people there are allowed to hunt only six polar bears a year, but he does
support the sport hunt as it is managed in northern Canada.

The CITES secretariat is recommending that the 175 countries vote against
the U.S. proposed ban, saying there isn't sufficiently compelling evidence
that the polar bear population has significantly declined.

The member countries, including Canada, will vote on the proposal when they
meet in Doha, Qatar, in mid-March.

Even though the proposed ban would not affect sport hunts in the North,
Goudie and other Canadian representatives say they plan to fight the
proposal in Doha on the basis that polar bears are not on the brink of
extinction.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2010/02/26/polar-bear-s
port-hunt.html