Polar Bears are the talk of Iqaluit: 2011 Polar Bear Range States Meeting

Winter has arrived (very appropriate in the home of Nanuq!), and so have about 70 delegates from all five Arctic nations hosting the world’s wild polar bears (Russia, USA/Alaska, Greenland/Denmark, Norway, and Canada).
Now held every two years, this formal meeting of the ‘Polar Bear Range States’ aims to better coordinate actions for polar bear conservation, governed by the 1973 International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears.  Back in the early 1970s, it was mainly excessive hunting and recreational killing /persecution of the big white bears that created major concerns, and the signing of this international agreement.  Nowadays the biggest issue by far is rapid climate change, and the unprecedented rate at which temperatures warming at twice the global average are melting away the arctic sea ice –essential habitat for polar bears and other ice-adapted animals like narwhal, bowhead whales, and ringed and bearded seals.

The Frobisher Inn, Iqaluit.  Late October 2011.  Site of the Intnl. Polar bear meeting.  (© Pete Ewins/WWF-Canada)
Two years ago in Tromso, arctic Norway, WWF pressed very hard for a major commitment from the Arctic nations to develop and implement a major Action Plan for polar bears.  The 2011 meeting shows that this process has started, but it will be the next meeting in 2013 when a full draft circumarctic action plan for the bears will be generated, and maybe 2015 before it is formally approved.  Slow as this might sound, it is on the right track, and many of the major partners in practical polar bear conservation work (including WWF) are accelerating their efforts now in the face of unprecedented changes to seaice, and increasing industrialization in the Arctic.
I was very proud to represent WWF as a formal Observer at this meeting, especially since virtually all the key Inuit organizations from North America were well represented.  Many good friends were there, and some new.  But what impressed me the most is how WWF’s practical work across the polar bear’s range is showing strong leadership, and increasing pace.  In fact, I tallied up 52 separate current or recent initiatives regarding polar bears that WWF is leading or supporting financially!  Work such as our bear-human conflict reduction projects in Chukotka in Russia, Alaska, and now Nunavut, and of course our support for the crucial gathering of Inuit traditional and local ecological information, and world class science on population ecology of polar bears.

Most important, however, is our work to address climate change – the greatest threat to polar bears’ future across their range.  While this is still a sensitive issue that not everyone is prepared to deal with, WWF is playing an important role, working toward our goal of 100 per cent renewable energy globally by 2050.  Now that really is going tohelp conserve polar bears!