Polar Bear CITES Up Listing Unnecessary

In October (2009) I wrote about the US call for polar bears to be up listed from Appendix II to Appendix I in the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). At the time I wrote that

Up listing polar bears to Appendix I essentially states that their survival is threatened with extinction and that their trade should be permitted only in exceptional circumstances.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Where and when necessary Inuit have always been at the forefront of conservation efforts, and if we thought that the polar bear was threatened by our hunting practices we would be the first to regulate those practices.

Our position that the polar bear population is not in danger of extinction, and that claims that it is are not based in either fact or science but in speculation about what may happen in the future, has (once again) been validated.

TRAFFIC, the international non-governmental organization that monitors the trade of wild plants and animals and their products, has submitted documents opposing the reclassification of polar bears proposed by the U.S. government.

TRAFFIC’s steering committee is composed of members of the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

“The threat to polar bears is not from trade. It is not really a concern at this time,” said Andrew Derocher, a member of the IUCN’s Polar Bear Specialist Group.

It is difficult to view the US proposal as anything but bowing to emotional pressure from certain animal rights groups who are more concerned with their personal agendas than the collective hunting rights and practices of Canadian Inuit and the well being of our community economies. The Head of the IUCN as well as Chairs of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission and the Polar Bear Specialist Group have collectively indicated to ITK that they see no biological reason or grounds to up list the Polar Bear to Appendix I on CITES.

ITK is currently lobbying various parties to the upcoming Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species conference to oppose the up listing. In addition to attending the conference, we are working with the Regional Inuit Organizations in Canada to put forward the strong and co ordinate position that this action is unwarranted, unnecessary, and unacceptable to us.

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