Polar bear decision at the 16th Conference of Parties for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). OTTAWA, Ont. â March 15, 2013 â Canadaâs Environment Minister, the Honourable Peter Kent, along with Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, today issued the following joint statement with regard to the polar bear decision at the 16th Conference of the Parties for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
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Polar bear decision at the 16th Conference of Parties for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
Posted by admin on March 16th, 2013
US and Russia unite to protect polar bears
Posted by admin on March 5th, 2013
Damian Carrington in Bangkok
A polar bear passes an oil drum on the edge of Hudson Bay, Canada. Canada is the only country that allows the export of polar bear products. Photograph: Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images
A fight to protect polar bears from Arctic hunters has led cold war foes the US and Russia to unite against Canada ahead of a key international vote this week.
The bitter row is over the 600 or so of the polar species killed each year by Canadian hunters, most of which are exported as bear skin rugs, fangs or paws. Diplomatic relations became even frostier on Tuesday, when the European Union attempted to block the US proposal to outlaw the export trade, which is strongly supported by Russia.
The US is adamant the trade is unsustainable. “The best scientific evidence says two-thirds of the polar bear population will be gone by mid-century, so how can you have a sustainable commercial trade?” asked Dan Ashe, head of the US delegation to the 178-nation meeting of the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) being held in Thailand.
Canada, home to about three-quarters of the world’s 20,000-25,000 remaining polar bears, is the only country that allows the export of polar bear products. Its delegates argue there is “insufficient scientific evidence” that polar bear populations will decline by more than half in the coming decades and that trade is “not detrimental to the species”. They say hunting and trading in polar bears is “integrally linked” with Inuit subsistence and culture.
All experts agree that the loss of Arctic sea ice due to climate change is the greatest threat to polar bears, who need the ice to hunt seals. But Canada argues that the impact on polar bears of shrinking ice, which reached record low levels in 2012, is “uncertain”.
Nikita Ovsyanikov, a leading polar bear expert and member the Russian delegation, rejects all the Canadian arguments. “They are just not true,” he said. “Polar bears are struggling for survival already and exposing them to hunting will drive them to extinction.”
About 200 polar bears are illegally poached in Russia each year, Ovsyanikov added, with the pelts laundered into the legal market using false Canadian documentation. “The sale of Canadian certification has also now become a criminal business,” he said. Such certificates would be void if the US proposal is approved.
Conservation campaigners, including the Natural Resources Defence Council and Humane Society International, are concerned that as polar bears become more rare, their skins become more valuable. They cite a doubling of pelt prices in the last five years, with the best specimens fetching more than $ 12,000 each.
The status of the 19 sub-populations of polar bear has long been contentious as they are hard to survey, but while a few are growing, more are declining. Canada claims it adjusts hunt quotas each year to ensure sustainability, but critics point to a tripling of the quota for the Nunavit territory in 2011, against the advice of the federal government and the respected International Union for Conservation of Nature, which stated “even the present [allowable harvest] is unsustainable so an increase only makes the resulting overharvest even less sustainable.”
Nunavit groups said the high harvest was due to unusual ice conditions bring more bears within hunting range, and was not driven by high prices for pelts.
The UK appeared to have been left in the cold on Tuesday by a surprise EU proposal to supplant the US one and simply ask Canada to report the number of polar bears exported and provide further information on trade and populations. Before the summit, the UK’s wildlife minister Richard Benyon, along with EU states including Germany, Poland and Belgium, had given the US strong backing for its proposed ban and the move left Ashe “baffled.” At an event at the Cites summit, Ashe led a large audience in a loud shout of “no” to the EU proposal.
Sonja Van Tichelen, the EU regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: “The EU proposal is a misguided and foolish attempt to save face. It is trying desperately to push any position on polar bears that stop it from falling into irrelevancy [by having to abstain in voting]. Polar bears would then have to pay the ultimate cost.”
Ovsyanikov was even more scathing: “This is not a compromise. It is a surrender.”
The US and EU proposals are expected to go to the vote on Wednesday or Thursday, with many delegates predicting that Canada is set to lose. If so, the new rules will enter force within 90 days. Hunting for polar bears by Inuit peoples would still be permitted under Canada’s domestic law, but exporting the skins would not.
Environment news, comment and analysis from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk
Polar Bear Champion Steven Amstrup Awarded 2012 Indianapolis Prize “Lord of the Arctic” May Survive Due to Efforts of Dedicated Scientist
Posted by admin on June 14th, 2012
WASHINGTON – His search to understand the Lord of the Arctic, Ursus maritimus, the polar bear, has taken him to one of the harshest environments in the world – a frozen seascape where temperatures plummet below zero and the sun isn’t seen for months on end. Dr. Steven C. Amstrup, the most influential person working on polar bear conservation today, has been selected from among a group of six outstanding finalists to receive the 2012 Indianapolis Prize – the world’s leading award for animal conservation.
Hope that the iconic and endangered polar bear may survive is due in large part to Dr. Amstrup and his team and their groundbreaking studies that resulted in the listing of polar bears as a threatened species because of global warming. Amstrup’s three decades of polar bear research and his unwavering conviction that solutions can and must be found are creating new optimism that polar bears can be saved from extinction. It is in recognition of his life-long work to transform the world’s understanding of and efforts to save polar bears that Steven C. Amstrup, chief scientist for Polar Bears International, has been named the recipient of the Indianapolis Prize. The biennial Prize includes an unrestricted award of $ 100,000 and the Lilly Medal, which will be presented at the Indianapolis Prize Gala ceremony presented by Cummins, Inc. on Sept. 29, 2012, at the JW Marriott Hotel in Indianapolis.
In 2007 Amstrup led an international team of researchers to assess the likely future impact of global warming on polar bears. The group’s nine reports, relied on by the Secretary of the Interior, became the basis for the 2008 listing of polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This listing is significant because the polar bear is the first species – and only species to date – to be listed on the basis of threats posed by global warming.
Early in his career as polar bear research leader for the U.S. Geological Survey, Amstrup solved the decades-old mystery of where Alaskan polar bears go to give birth to their young. His finding that more than half of the mother bears denned on drifting ice floes, which are highly susceptible to rising temperatures, was a prescient indication of the vulnerability of polar bears to a warming world. This and other discoveries regarding the polar bear’s dependence on sea ice led to Amstrup’s 2007 projection that two-thirds of the world’s polar bears could disappear by midcentury, and all could be lost by the end of the century, if greenhouse gas emissions continue on the present course. Those discoveries also showed that changing our greenhouse gas emissions path could save polar bears.
“Steven’s fieldwork in the Arctic opened the door to understanding that the deterioration of the polar bear population is at our doorstep, while verifying that this is not an irreversible situation,” said Robert Buchanan, President/CEO, Polar Bears International. “His passionate outreach has helped the world understand how sea ice losses from a warming climate threaten polar bear survival. His message is one of hope and determination to have future generations see polar bears roam free in the Arctic.”
“Steve Amstrup is widely regarded as the most important and influential scientist working on polar bear conservation today,” said Michael Crowther, President and CEO of the Indianapolis Zoo. “By bringing greater awareness to the polar bears’ plight and plausible solutions, he has created a lifeline for the entire species.”
Born in Fargo, N.D., Amstrup received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington in Seattle, his master of science from the University of Idaho in Moscow, and his doctorate from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. Amstrup currently resides in Kettle Falls, Wash., with his wife Virginia, and maintains electronic connection with the Polar Bears International office in Bozeman, Mont.
The 2010 biennial Indianapolis Prize was awarded to legendary elephant advocate Iain Douglas-Hamilton. His accomplishments span decades and continents, bringing global attention to the issue of blood ivory and inspiring others to join the battle against poachers and traders.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Downloadable jpg images to accompany this story are available
on the Indianapolis Prize website:
www.indianapolisprize.org
The Indianapolis Prize was initiated by the Indianapolis Zoo as a significant component of its mission to empower people and communities, both locally and globally, to advance animal conservation. This biennial award brings the world’s attention to the cause of animal conservation and the brave, talented and dedicated men and women who spend their lives saving the Earth’s endangered animal species. The recipient also receives the Lilly Medal, an original work of art that signifies the winner’s contributions to conserving some of the world’s most threatened animals. The 2010 Indianapolis Prize was awarded to Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder and CEO of Save the Elephants and legendary conservation figure. Additional Prize predecessors include Dr. George Archibald, the co-founder of the International Crane Foundation, and Dr. George Schaller, the world’s pre-eminent field biologist and vice president of science and exploration for the World Conservation Society. The Indianapolis Prize has received support from the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation since its inception in 2006.
Dr. Steve Amstrup prepares for a field trip to Alaska’s north.
Dr. Steve Amstrup with twin polar bear cubs in Alaska.
Contact Info:
Website : 2012 Indianapolis Prize
Lawsuit Seeks Protections for Sea Turtles, Polar Bears, Other Rare Wildlife From Oil-spill Dispersants
Posted by admin on April 19th, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO— Conservation groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard Wednesday for authorizing toxic oil dispersants without ensuring that these chemicals would not harm endangered species or their habitats. The groups want the EPA to immediately study the effects of dispersants on endangered and threatened species in all U.S. waters, including whales, sea turtles, salmon and seabirds in the Pacific and polar bears and walruses in the Arctic.
“If chemical dispersants are going to be used after an oil spill, we have to know whether they’ll hurt or kill whales, sea turtles and other wildlife. So far, the EPA has no idea,” said Deirdre McDonnell of the Center for Biological Diversity, which brought suit with Surfrider and Pacific Environment. “Unprecedented amounts of dispersants were dumped into the sea during the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and they’re likely still affecting the Gulf of Mexico, where dead dolphins continue to wash ashore.”
Dispersants are chemicals used to break oil spills into tiny droplets. In theory, this allows the oil to be eaten by microorganisms and become diluted faster than it would if left untreated. However, dispersants and dispersed oil can also allow toxins to accumulate in the marine food web.
Once put on an official EPA list, dispersants can immediately be used in oil-spill responses in any U.S. waters. But the EPA has not taken steps to ensure the chemicals won’t jeopardize endangered wildlife. It should determine the safety of a dispersant before its use, not afterward as with Deepwater Horizon.
More than 2 million gallons were used in the Deepwater Horizon response. Yet the effects of using such large quantities of dispersants in very deep water, as BP did in the Gulf of Mexico, have never been studied; scientists believe it may be linked to the spread of underwater oil plumes.
The groups are also asking the government to apply lessons learned from the Gulf disaster to oil-response plans for the California coast, where dispersants have been preapproved for vast areas of the Pacific. They want the agencies to reexamine a regional response plan to determine whether these toxins would harm endangered wildlife.
“The Pacific Ocean encompasses some of the most unique marine ecosystems in the world, providing habitat for many endangered and threatened species. In the Arctic, dispersants would not only affect these animals, but the indigenous peoples who have subsisted on marine resources for centuries,” said Colleen Keane, Alaska program associate for Pacific Environment. “The EPA needs to take the precautionary approach in order to prevent future harm to the health of the environment and people.”
The Center, Pacific Environment and Surfrider filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit seeks to force the EPA and Coast Guard to comply with the Endangered Species Act and examine the impacts of these toxins on endangered wildlife, as well as consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“These chemical dispersants are dangerous to human health in addition to wildlife, and shouldn’t be allowed to threaten a family’s enjoyment of the beach. Surfrider members in Florida are so concerned about the aftereffects of the BP spill, they have taken it upon themselves to test the Gulf sand and coastal waters, and have found likely traces of Corexit attached to undissolved tar product in the coastal zone,” said Surfrider Foundation’s Legal Director Angela Howe.
“We’ve seen the destruction that oil spills leave in their wake,” said McDonnell. “We shouldn’t add insult to injury by using dispersants that could have long-term effects on species already fighting for survival.”
Contact Info: Deirdre McDonnell, Center for Biological Diversity, (971) 279-5471
Angela Howe, Surfrider Foundation, (949) 492-8170
Colleen Keane, Pacific Environment, (206) 734-9300
Website : Center for Biological Diversity
Obama Administration Again Proposes Polar Bear Extinction Plan
Posted by admin on April 18th, 2012
WASHINGTON- The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is reissuing a Bush-era regulation that sharply limits protections for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. Both the current proposal and the previous Bush rule exclude activities occurring outside the range of polar bears – such as the greenhouse gas emissions of industrial polluters like coal plants – from regulations that could help stop the bear’s extinction. Tuesday’s announcement came as a result of a court order that struck down the Bush rule in October 2011.
Polar bears were the first species added to the endangered and threatened species list solely because of threats from global warming. Regulations issued under the Endangered Species Act must provide for the “conservation” of threatened species. Notably, the press release issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announcing the new proposed rule Tuesday did not mention greenhouse gases or climate change at all, while the very purpose of the rule is to exempt greenhouse emissions from the reach of the Act.
“If polar bears are to survive we have to directly confront the greatest threat to them: our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “But the Obama administration seems to be living in a fantasy world where the way to solve a difficult problem is to deny its existence.”
The proposed rule severely undermines protection for polar bears by exempting from portions of the Endangered Species Act all activities that occur outside of the bears’ range. But the species is endangered precisely because of activities occurring outside the Arctic – namely the emission of greenhouse gases and resulting warming that is leading to the rapid disappearance of summer sea ice.
“With their sea-ice habitat rapidly disappearing, polar bears need the full protection of the Endangered Species Act,” said Siegel. “President Obama’s proposal for these magnificent and imperiled animals is a gift to Big Oil and an affirmation of the pro-industry policies of the Bush government. When it comes to saving urgently endangered polar bears, the only ‘change’ Obama has delivered is more climate change.”
The special rule also reduces the protections the bear would otherwise receive in Alaska from oil-industry activities in its habitat.
When the polar bear was listed as a threatened species in May 2008 (following a petition by the Center), the Bush administration simultaneously issued a special rule under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act. A similar rule was finalized in December 2008 and defended by the Obama administration in court. On Oct. 17, 2011, a federal district court judge struck it down owing to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to conduct an environmental review of the rule’s impacts.
The challenge was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace and Defenders of Wildlife. Tuesday’s proposal, in response to the 2011 court order, triggers a 60-day public comment period, with the rule scheduled for finalization by the end of 2012.
Contact Info: Kassie Siegel, (760) 366-2232 x 302 or (951) 961-7972
Website : Center for Biological Diversity
How polar bears live
Posted by admin on February 27th, 2012
The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a bear native largely to the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world’s largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous kodiak bear, which is approximately the same size
Photograph: Nick Cobbing/Greenpeace
Environment news, comment and analysis from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk
Body pop for polar bears! IUCN Member launches ‘Creative Climate Change Challenge’ for young people
Posted by admin on February 22nd, 2012
Wildlife charity Wildscreen, an IUCN Member, has launched a creative communications competition to raise awareness amongst young people about animals and plants affected by climate change.
Sanctions Sought Against Canada Over Unsustainable Polar Bear Hunting That Violates International Treaty
Posted by admin on January 24th, 2012
WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity, a U.S. conservation group, filed a formal request Monday with the U.S. Department of the Interior to initiate trade sanctions against Canada for violating the 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, a treaty among the five nations within the range of the polar bear. Over the objections of Environment Canada and the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group, the Canadian territory of Nunavut last fall quadrupled the number of polar bears to be hunted this season from the already-declining Western Hudson Bay population.
“The polar bear is already on an extinction trajectory because of global warming. Unsustainable hunting will push it over the edge,” said Brendan Cummings with the Center for Biological Diversity, which successfully petitioned and sued to protect polar bears under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. “If we want to keep polar bears in the world, we have to dramatically cut greenhouse emissions and also reduce all the other threats to its survival, including overhunting.”
The Western Hudson Bay polar bear population, which includes the bears who congregate near the Canadian town of Churchill each fall waiting for the ice to form, is among the most threatened by global warming and has declined dramatically in recent years: Only about 700 bears remain, down from almost 1,200 just two decades ago. In October, the territory of Nunavut increased the number of Western Hudson Bay polar bears that may be hunted from eight bears a year to 38.
The Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears prohibits polar bear hunting unless it comports with both “the best available scientific data” and “sound conservation practices.” In objecting to the quota increase, the Polar Bear Specialist Group, an international body made up of the world’s top polar bear researchers, said the hunt was “not sustainable,” “contrary” to the best science, and “contravenes the intent” of the Polar Bear Agreement.
Under a U.S. law referred to as the “Pelly Amendment,” the Center’s petition asks the interior secretary to find that Canada’s continued hunting and polar bear trade “diminishes the effectiveness” of the Polar Bear Agreement. Upon such a finding, the secretary must then request that the president prohibit the import of Canadian wildlife products until the country comes into compliance with its treaty obligations.
“As the price and demand for polar bear skins increases, Canada continues to ignore the deep trouble polar bears are in,” said Cummings, noting Canada is the only country that still allows polar bear sport hunting. “As home to the majority of the world’s polar bears, Canada should be at the forefront of efforts to protect the species, not the biggest obstacle to the bears’ conservation.”
The Nunavut hunting decision was followed by Canada’s decision in November to deny the polar bear endangered status under the country’s Species At Risk Act.
Imports of polar bear skins into the United States are already prohibited under U.S. law. Sanctions implemented under the Pelly Amendment would prohibit the importation of other types of wildlife products from Canada.
Contact Info: Brendan Cummings, [email protected], (760) 366-2232 x 304
Website : Center for Biological Diversity
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NAFTA Panel Called Upon to Investigate Canada’s Failure to Protect Polar Bears
Posted by admin on December 1st, 2011
Montréal— The Center for Biological Diversity, a U.S. conservation group, filed a formal challenge Wednesday over Canada’s failure to protect polar bears under its Species At Risk Act. The challenge was filed with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, an entity established by the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, to monitor the three signatory countries’ compliance with their own environmental laws.
Earlier this month, the Canadian government completed its long-overdue process to assess the status of polar bears under the country’s Species At Risk Act. However, instead of listing the imperiled bears as “threatened” or “endangered,” the government designated the bears only as a “species of special concern,” which affords the bears no substantive protections.
“Canada is willfully ignoring the deep trouble that polar bears are already in and the likely extinction they face without rapid cuts in greenhouse emissions,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, which successfully petitioned and sued to protect polar bears under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. “Time is running out for the world’s polar bears. They deserve real protection.”
Canada’s decision to withhold meaningful protections for the polar bear was based on an assessment that failed to address the primary threat to the species: the ongoing and projected loss of its sea-ice habitat in the face of global warming. Canada’s listing decision also conflicts with the 2008 U.S. decision to list the polar bear as threatened under its Endangered Species Act and the Polar Bear Specialist Group’s 2005 decision to categorize the polar bear as “vulnerable” due to projected declines from climate change. Scientists say that, without help, more than two-thirds of all polar bears will be gone by 2050 and the rest could be extinct by the end of the century.
Listing polar bears as endangered or threatened under the Species At Risk Act would prohibit some hunting, killing and harm and would establish protected “critical habitat.” The “species of special concern” designation requires only a management plan in three years and no guarantee of actual protections.
Wednesday’s appeal to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation comes as international climate talks get underway in Durban, South Africa. Canada, which has failed to meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, has been widely reported as likely to formally withdraw from the Protocol.
“While the U.S. has a long way to go before it can be said to be doing right by the polar bear, it has at least recognized — unlike Canada — that greenhouse emissions pose a direct threat to the bears’ existence,” said Siegel. “As home to the majority of the world’s polar bears, Canada should be at the forefront of efforts to protect them.”
Contact Info: Kassie Siegel, [email protected], (760) 366-2232 x 302
Website : Center for Biological Diversity
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Stranded polar bears in Alaska
Posted by admin on November 16th, 2011
A stranded female polar bear and mother of two cubs waits for the sea ice to return to be able to hunt. As the Arctic sea ice minimum retreats over 700 miles from the shore, bears must either head north or swim south to land as the ice breaks up in the spring. The US Fish and Wildlife service working in the area have counted 49 bears within 10 miles of the Arctic city of Kaktovik, the largest concentration of bears out of the estimated 70-80 currently along Alaska’s Beaufort sea coastline
Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjölander/70° North/Greenpeace
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Environment news, comment and analysis from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk