Climate change is the real threat to polar bears, not hunting.
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, has recommended that aboriginal subsistence hunts of polar bears not be restricted, citing that the hunts represent just 2% of the population—and that the real threat to polar bears is climate change.
Parties to CITES (the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) will be asked to vote on whether the proposal should be adopted at the forthcoming meeting in Doha, Qatar, scheduled for March 13–25, 2010.
Following is the text of the Traffic recommendation:
There is an estimated global population of 20 000–25 000 Polar Bears, *Ursus
maritimus*, which range through Canada, Greenland, Norway, the Russian Federation and the USA. The majority of these animals—approximately 15,000— either occur entirely in Canada or are in populations shared by Canada with Greenland and Alaska.
The global conservation status for Polar Bears was assessed in 2008 by IUCN as vulnerable. While international transactions in scientific specimens of the species and some personal possessions have increased since the 1990s, commercial trade has not increased, and trends in trade are not indicative of harvest levels.
Canada is the only country that currently allows commercial exports of Polar Bear parts and products—all of which result from aboriginal subsistence hunting. Since the 1990s, approximately 300 Canadian Polar Bears (about 2% of the population) have entered international trade annually.
The primary threat to Polar Bears is the retreat of sea-ice habitat, driven by global cimate change. The global population of Polar Bears is not small and has not undergone a marked decline in the recent past; the species’ area of distribution is not restricted; and the projected rate of population decline as a result of climate change is estimated to be approximately 30% over the next 45–50 years. Therefore, the Polar Bear does not meet any of the biological criteria for inclusion in Appendix I. Trade is not a significant threat to the species.
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