John Acher Yahoo News 16 Mar 09;
OSLO (Reuters) – Global warming is threatening polar bears as it melts their icy Arctic habitat, Norway's environment minister said on Monday.
"If the ice is disintegrating in the Arctic, it will have enormous impact on polar bears," Environment and Development Minister Erik Solheim told reporters on the eve of a meeting to discuss the future of the huge white carnivore.
The meeting is the first since 1981 to bring together states which are home to polar bears -- Norway, Russia, Canada, the United States and Danish-administered Greenland.
"Clearly the main point in a rescue plan for the polar bear is to reduce global warming," Solheim said.
The world's polar bear population is estimated at 20,000-25,000 animals, with 2,200-4,000 belonging to the Barents Sea population of Norway and northwestern Russia.
Polar bears spend most of their lives on or near sea ice. Though they are excellent swimmers, they are no match in the water for seals, their main prey, so they must hunt on ice floes.
Solheim said it was very helpful that the United States under former President George W. Bush put the polar bear on the list of endangered species.
"We should build on that to see what we can do to protect the polar bears," he said.
The range states agreed in 1973 to protect polar bears and their habitat, but they have not met for 28 years.
SOOT A POLAR PROBLEM
James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and an expert on global warming, said pollutants and gases such as soot, ozone and methane, can be controlled more easily in the Arctic than carbon dioxide (CO2).
CO2 is the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.
Industrial soot, for instance, blackens the snow and makes it soak up more heat, accelerating the melt.
"Their warming effect in the Arctic is very large," Hansen told a news conference. "Pollution in the Arctic contributes to the melting of the ice. Those climate-forcing mechanisms can be addressed more quickly than carbon dioxide."
Arctic sea ice shrank in 2007 to its smallest since satellite measurements began 30 years ago, leading to worries that it could vanish in summers.
"I think it's still possible to save sea ice in the Arctic but it requires strong, prompt actions," Hansen said.
About 700 polar bears are shot yearly in Canada, Alaska and on Greenland. Since 1973, hunting has been banned in the Svalbard archipelago off northernmost Norway.
In the Russian part of the Arctic, hunting is illegal, but an unknown number of bears is shot every year, according to the Norwegian Polar Institute.
(Reporting by John Acher and Alister Doyle; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Hunters under fire in battle to save polar bear from extinction
Summit to discuss limits on hunting as starvation hits numbers of Arctic predators
Michael McCarthy, The Independent 16 Mar 09;
A limit on the hunting of polar bears by sportsmen and native Arctic people will top the agenda at an international summit in Norway tomorrow, seen as vital to the survival of the predator. Although few people outside the Arctic realise it, there is still a major legal hunt for the animals in four out of the five states that host the bears: Canada, Greenland, Alaska in the US, and Russia. In Norway, stalking is banned.
This hunt by Inuit native peoples and in Canada also by sportsmen – referred to as a "harvest" – claims as many as 700 polar bears killed every year, 3 per cent of the entire population. Adding the threat from climate change, which is eradicating the bear's natural habitat, the hunts are seen as no longer "sustainable". Studies from the US Geological Survey and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature suggest that the total population of 22,000 polar bears will fall by up to two-thirds over the next 50 years, leading the creature to the precipice of extinction.
In the age of global warming, Ursus maritimus is coming to replace the giant panda as the world's principal icon of threatened wildlife. Rising temperatures are rapidly melting the Arctic sea-ice the bears use in summer to hunt seals, meaning many cannot build large fat reserves to take them through the winter, and so starve.
The summit is in Tromsø, the Norwegian city 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The five countries were party to the 1973 Polar Bear Agreement, signed by all the range states to regulate hunting, which at the time was thought to be getting out of control.
The agreement in general is thought to have worked well, but on the table tomorrow will be a draft Species Action Plan for the polar bear drawn up by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), with one of its principal points being the issue of "unsustainable harvest", in other words, overhunting in the face of global warming.
The aim, said Geoff York, polar bear conservation co-ordinator for WWF's Arctic Programme, is to get the states which allow hunting to incorporate the science of climate change into their "harvest management plans". He added: "Climate change impacts are not formally taken into account with any of the polar bear populations which are harvested. We're asking the parties who manage polar bears to incorporate climate change science into their management regimes."
The implication is of course that hunting quotas will have to be reduced, a difficult issue with the Inuit who see it as part of their culture. WWF says it is not opposed to hunting in principle, as long as it is sustainable. But, said Mr York, "That is quickly changing. The situation facing polar bears is dire, because of habitat loss due to climate change. If we don't do something meaningful soon, it will be very difficult for them to survive in the long run."
The question of future hunting is sensitive, not least because there is evidence that some polar bear populations are already being exploited beyond what their numbers could support, even in the absence of the climate threat.
The Baffin Bay population, found between eastern Canada and Greenland, is thought to be one such, with a near 30 per cent decline in recent years from 2,100 to 1,500; the Chukotka population in eastern Siberia is thought to be another, where there may be illegal hunting.
The financial return from hunting is an important income for some indigenous people. Polar bears taken are used as food in some communities, and skins and skulls are either sold commercially, converted to handicrafts, or used privately.
The draft action plan also addresses industrialisation of the Arctic, toxic substances, and how to deal with the increasing number of human-polar bear interactions as bears come ashore in larger numbers as the sea-ice disappears.
Mr York said that he understood the view that hunting should be banned completely but the WWF preferred a more nuanced approach, working with local people. "If you just take away people's livelihoods, you can do short-term harm to your long-term conservation goals," he said.
The Bear Hunt: Only the liver is wasted once the Inuits strike
Cahal Milmo, The Independent 16 Mar 09;
Inuit hunters call it the nanniaq, the quest to track, chase and kill the animal they consider to be king of the beasts that stalk the ice floes and plains of the Arctic.
For centuries, indigenous tribesmen have used dogs and wooden sleds to pursue polar bears. The dog teams harass and surround their prey before the men move in for the kill, armed with just a wooden spear. If the huntsman failed to place his blow correctly, he risked the scything blow of a polar bear's claws and its preferred method of slaying a meal, crushing the skull between its jaws.
Nowadays, the Inuit can keep their distance from nanuq, as the bear is known in their language, by using a hunting rifle and stalking their quarry on snowmobiles. But the annual bear-hunt remains a practice steeped in technique and tradition.
Working in temperatures as low as minus 35C, the pursuit can last days as the hunters search out tracks and droppings in the snow. When they spot a bear, they issue the "caw" of a raven, a bird that frequently follows the huge carnivores to scavenge on discarded carcasses. The noise would be familiar to the animal and can even cause it to slow down to investigate.
Working in teams, the hunters trap the bear on the ice between open water and the shore before felling it with a shot to the heart. It is then butchered on the spot. Almost everything is used: the thick fur is made into trousers or footwear and the meat is prized for stews. Sinews are used for sewing clothes while the fat goes into food or oil lamps and the large canine teeth are still prized as talismans. The only part of the beast that is discarded is the liver, which contains a poisonous concentration of vitamin A and is either thrown into the sea or buried to stop the dogs from eating it.
Legends and superstitions about nanuq abound in Inuit society. The bears are thought to have the power to change shape, converting themselves into other animals or ice to evade hunters. One taboo is that a successful huntsman must remove his outer clothes before entering his home, mimicking the belief that a polar bear removes it fur once safely inside its den and assumes human form.
Polar Bears At Risk, Climate Deal Needed: Norway
John Acher, PlanetArk 18 Mar 09;
OSLO - An international plan is needed to rescue polar bears and their icy Arctic habitat but its success will hinge on a U.N. deal to fight global warming due to be agreed in December, Norway said on Tuesday.
"Climate change has overtaken hunting as the most significant threat to the polar bear," Norway's Environment and Development Minister Erik Solheim told a meeting of the five states rimming the Arctic where the white bears live.
"We must work to protect the ecosystem the bear is part of," Solheim said. "Global warming must be stopped if we are to succeed."
Solheim urged the three-day meeting -- the first time the range states have met since 1981 -- to agree on a joint action plan for saving the polar bear, including cooperation on research and management of the species.
The meeting in the Norwegian town of Tromsoe within the Arctic Circle is the first since 1981 to bring together the states that are home to polar bears -- Norway, Russia, Canada, the United States and Danish-administered Greenland.
The five agreed in 1973 to protect the bear and its habitat at a time when human hunters were its only known enemy. But the melting of the polar ice is now the biggest threat to the world's 20,000-25,000 polar bears, experts say.
Though they are excellent swimmers, the great white carnivores are not fast enough to catch seals, their main prey, in open water. Their survival depends on catching seals on ice, which is shrinking fast.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reclassified the polar bear as a vulnerable species on its Red List of Endangered Species in 2005.
Arctic sea ice shrank in 2007 to its smallest since satellite measurements began 30 years ago, raising the prospect that it could vanish in summers.
Though climate change is the main risk to the bear, Solheim said the species' habitat is also threatened with destruction through pollution, human disturbance and hunting.
He said rapid reduction of sea ice can also trigger other mechanisms, such as a release of methane from the Arctic tundra or accelerate the melting of glaciers on Greenland.
"This could have dramatic effects for people's living conditions all over the world," he said. "We must send a clear message to the climate meeting in Copenhagen that it must hurry to stop and reverse the rising of temperatures and melting of ice in the Arctic," Solheim said.
More than 190 governments will meet in Copenhagen in December to agree a new global accord to replace the Kyoto pact.
Polar bear states retreat behind closed doors to discuss climate measures
WWF 17 Mar 09;
Tromso, Norway - Five countries meeting for the first time in 25 years to discuss polar bear conservation today retreated behind closed doors to discuss climate change and national measures being taken to combat it.
Climate change and the receding Arctic sea ice are regarded as the greatest threat to the Arctic emblem.
Unexpectedly excluded from the meeting were NGOs, an Arctic indigenous organization and other observers.
“We do not know what these countries have to say about protecting polar bears that cannot be shared with the world,” says Geoff York, polar bear coordinator for WWF.
The decision to exclude observers from the Meeting of the Parties on the Agreement on the Conservation on Polar Bears, was taken yesterday at another closed door meeting between heads of the national delegations. The countries involved in the meeting are Norway, Russia, Canada, the United States and Denmark (Greenland).
However, it seems not all countries were supportive of the exclusion of observers.
“The Norwegian Environment Minister made it clear today that the host Norwegian government wanted WWF and other interested parties to take part in this meeting,” said York. “WWF applauds the Norwegian Minister for calling on the meeting to deliver strong message on climate change to the UN climate conference in Copenhagen this December.
“It is unfortunate that some other countries are not so open and transparent.
“It may be that certain governments do not want to hear what we have to say about the necessity of tackling climate change as the core threat to polar bears, and their obligations under the polar bear agreement to take action to protect polar bear habitat.”
WWF, officially invited to the meeting, intends to “continue to monitor the meeting as much as we are able”, York said.
It also intends to present to delegates draft plans on managing polar bears and conservation financing if given the opportunity after the meeting closes.
Curb climate change to save polar bear: Norway
Pierre-Henry Deshayes Yahoo News 17 Mar 09;
TROMSOE, Norway (AFP) – Countries around the Arctic must commit to curbing climate change to ensure the survival of the polar bear, Norway's environment minister said Tuesday as an international meeting opened on the species' fate.
"The principal threat to polar bears now is coming from climate change," Erik Solheim told representatives of the five countries that ring the Arctic -- Canada, Denmark (with Greenland), Norway, Russia and the United States.
"To succeed in conserving the important ecosystems (that the polar bear depends on) we must stop global warming," he said at the gathering in the northern Norwegian town of Tromsoe.
The three-day meeting will discuss how to address threats to the white bear that have emerged since the five countries first signed a conservation agreement in 1973, when hunters were the species' only known enemy.
Nearly four decades later, global warming is considered by far the biggest danger to the polar bear, as it melts the Arctic sea ice that makes up the animal's primary hunting ground for its main prey, seals.
Some estimates show the ice could disappear completely during the summer months by 2020 or even earlier.
With the mercury rising ever higher, as many as two thirds of the 20-25,000 polar bears that roam the Arctic could disappear by the middle of this century, according to a recent estimate from the US Geological Survey.
After that, the remainder of the animals would only be found in the far north of Canada and Greenland, experts predict.
The Tromsoe gathering comes just nine months before talks on a new global pact on climate change to replace the Kyoto accord are to be held in Copenhagen. The outcome of that is largely expected to determine the fate of the polar bear.
"I hope that we here will reach a consensus that will send a strong message to the climate negotiators," Solheim told AFP on the sidelines of the conference.
"This meeting is not about debating a 25 or 30 percent reduction of greenhouse gases, but rather it's about issuing a loud warning before the Copenhagen meeting: the situation in the Arctic, as symbolised by the polar bear, is very serious," he added.
Host country Norway hopes the meeting will not only lead to a recognition of the link between saving the climate and saving the polar bear, but also an agreement on a joint action plan and increased efforts to reduce other dangers to the species.
The polar bear is also threatened by chemical pollutants from industries and increased human activity in the once-pristine Arctic.
They include oil and gas prospecting, mining, tourism, military exercises and shipping, all of which are expected to boom as the Arctic ice melts.
Environmental activists on Tuesday vehemently criticised a decision to exclude observers from parts of the Tromsoe meeting at the request of certain participants.
They interpreted this as a lack of real willingness to address delicate issues.
"Before, it was dangerous to run into a polar bear if you weren't carrying a weapon," said Rasmus Hansson, the head of the Norwegian branch of environmental group WWF.
"Today, the topic of polar bears seems as dangerous in the international political arena, where the slightest mention of it means you have to discuss subjects that hurt, like climate change," he told AFP.
All fingers were being pointed at Canada and Greenland, he added.
"Canadian authorities want to pretend that it's possible to discuss the polar bear without taking climate change into account, which is a position that is difficult to defend," Hansson said.
"As for Greenland, it interprets the presence of observers as an unacceptable interference in its management of the polar bear hunt, which is a tradition there," he said.
The heads of the Canadian and Greenlandic delegations told AFP they wanted the Tromsoe meeting to be kept at the "technical" level focusing on a simple exchange of information.
Norway had meanwhile indicated that it hoped the meeting would lead to concrete decisions.
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