Play tag with icebears in Ottawa

By Sue Novotny, Communications Officer, WWF Global Arctic Programme
We’re here at Winterlude to kick off the Year of the Polar Bear with a high tech scavenger hunt. 5 polar bear ice sculptures are hidden around the city, each representing one of the countries where real bears are found – Kingdom of Denmark (Greenland), Russia, the United States, Canada and Norway.
2013 is the Year of the Polar Bear because those 5 countries – the range states – are celebrating a milestone. It’s the 40th anniversary of the 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears. The conservation work done by the range states in the past 40 years has helped bring many populations of polar bears back from the brink.

While we’re celebrating success this year, we’re also looking ahead to the next 40 years. When the range states meet again this fall to plan for the future of polar bear conservation, they’ll need to take climate change into account, and the enormous changes it’s creating for the polar bear’s habitat, sea ice.
WWF is encouraging the range states to make serious conservation commitments this year. In the meantime, we’re supporting polar bear research projects across the arctic, and programs to help northern communities prevent conflict with bears, keeping both bears and people safe.
If you’re in Ottawa, we hope you’ll come out and join us in celebrating the year of the polar bear. Visit panda.org/icebear to get started! And even if you’re not near Ottawa, you can still be a part of the celebration. Visit panda.org/polarbearyear, sign up for our newsletter, and join WWF in supporting a future for polar bears.