Conservation of polar bears
The conservation of polar bears focuses on the efforts to preserve this iconic Arctic species, which faces significant threats primarily from habitat loss due to global warming and human activities, notably mineral extraction. Polar bears are large marine mammals that depend on Arctic sea ice for hunting seals, their main food source, and for creating dens for giving birth. Historically, hunting for their fur posed a risk to their population, but it is now overshadowed by the impacts of climate change, with projections suggesting severe declines in their numbers by 2050. Various international agreements, such as the International Agreement for the Conservation of Polar Bears established in 1973, aim to regulate hunting and protect the species, with exceptions made for Indigenous hunting practices that are culturally significant. Despite these conservation measures, conflicts arise between the protection efforts and the rights of Indigenous communities, highlighting the complex interplay between environmental conservation and cultural heritage. As the situation evolves, the future of polar bears remains precarious, underscoring the urgent need for comprehensive actions to address climate change and habitat preservation.
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Conservation of polar bears
DEFINITION: Large white bear species native to the Arctic Circle
Polar bears face several threats as a species, including the loss of habitat, some the result of global warming, and some caused by human activities related to mineral extraction in the Arctic. Governments, environmental organizations, and individuals have been involved in efforts to preserve the species.
The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is one of the earth’s largest land-roving animals. Mature male polar bears may weigh as much as 770 kilograms (1,700 pounds). Polar bears live principally in the Arctic, in about twenty different locations. Their thick fur and blubber beneath their skin enable them to survive in the frigid climate of their habitat. Their principal food source is seals, which they hunt in the icy Arctic waters, but they also eat whale meat, vegetation, and kelp. Polar bears depend on the pack ice of the Arctic as they travel far from land while hunting for food; they also depend on soft snow, in which they prepare their dens for birthing.
Polar bears have been hunted for their white fur in Russia since the fourteenth century. The commercial trade in the fur increased over the centuries as more people moved into Arctic regions, and firearms made killing the bears easier. However, in comparison to the hunting of other Arctic species, such as the arctic fox, the commercial hunting of polar bears has never been important for the fur industry. The hunting of polar bears reached a peak during the early twentieth century when perhaps 1,500 bears were killed annually and then fell off as the population of bears declined. Later in the century, the use of mechanized hunting and hunting from snowmobiles, icebreakers, and airplanes increased the number of bears killed to another peak of 1,200 to 1,300 during the late 1960s.
Although hunting and poaching pose problems for the survival of the polar bear as a species, the main threat to the polar bear is global warming. As pack ice has disappeared and snowfall has decreased, the bears have found it increasingly difficult to hunt seals. This problem is compounded by reductions in the seal population, which may also be linked to global warming. The habitat destruction caused by the processes associated with the extraction of oil and coal from Arctic lands has also contributed to the decline of polar bears. In 2015 the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated the total population of polar bears in the Arctic to be 22,000 to 30,000. In 2021, that number remained steady, with the World Wildlife Fund estimating the global polar bear population to be 22,000 to 31,000. However, even if the population of polar bears increases for a time, as climate change causes sea ice to melt, their population will decrease. By 2040, scientists believe that only a small amount of ice will remain in Northeast Canada and Northern Greenland after other large areas of summer ice are gone for the season. This will drastically affect the number of polar bears. Furthermore, not all polar bear populations are the same; as of 2024, some were still decreasing. For example, the Southern Beaufort Sea population has declined by 40 percent. The US Geological Survey has projected that if the trends seen in the early twenty-first century continue, two-thirds of the polar bear population will disappear by 2050, and by 2080 only a few will remain in the Arctic Circle.
In 1973 the five nations having the most land in the polar bears’ feeding range—the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union, Denmark (in Greenland), and Norway—signed the International Agreement for the Conservation of Polar Bears, which established rules that allowed for the capturing and killing of polar bears only for scientific research purposes or to preserve the of the Arctic. An exception was made for Indigenous peoples hunting bears traditionally. The agreement also specified that skins and other objects of value taken from polar bears could not be sold commercially, and it outlawed the hunting of the bears from planes and icebreakers. Norway later banned all hunting of polar bears.
Polar bears are listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which means that CITES signatory nations are allowed to conduct limited commercial hunting of the animals. Concerned environmental groups have petitioned to have the bears listed instead in Appendix I of the convention, which would prohibit signatory nations from all commercial hunting of polar bears. These groups’ efforts to protect polar bears have put them in conflict with some of the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic, who want to retain the right to hunt polar bears as part of their traditional cultural practices.
Bibliography
Ellis, Richard. On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
Kazlowski, Steven. The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World. Seattle: Mountaineers Books, 2008.
"Polar Bear: A Powerful Predator On Ice." WWF-UK, www.wwf.org.uk/learn/wildlife/polar-bears. Accessed 21 July 2024.
Rosing, Norbert. The World of the Polar Bear. Tonawanda, N.Y.: Firefly Books, 2006.
Tandon, Ayesha and Roz Pidcock. "Polar Bears and Climate Change: What Does the Science Say?" CarbonBrief, 7 Dec. 2022, interactive.carbonbrief.org/polar-bears-climate-change-what-does-science-say/. Accessed 21 July 2024.