Inuit Encouraged by Improved Polar Bear Range State Inclusion

Ottawa, Ontario – Friday October 27, 2011: Inuit regional and national representative organizations attended the meeting of the Range States for the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears in Iqaluit, Nunavut, October 24-26, 2011. The Agreement was signed in 1973 between Canada, U.S., Greenland, Norway, and Russia. The Iqaluit meeting is a continuation of biennial meetings of the Range States since 2007 and it’s the first meeting held in Inuit Nunangat and within a region inhabited by polar bears.

ITK is encouraged to see that Inuit are directly being made more a part of the polar bear Range States meetings and process because Inuit participation and perspectives are absolutely essential to move the work of the Range States forward. The Iqaluit meeting is a watershed moment that not only brought the Range States members to Inuit Nunangat and to the land of Nanuk, it also resulted in a consensus for the involvement of Inuit and the use and recognized importance of Inuit Traditional Ecological Knowledge in polar bear conservation, research, management, and monitoring efforts here in Canada and across the circumpolar world.

ITK and the Inuit regional organizations will continue to engage in the Range States process along with Canadian jurisdictional governments and co-management bodies. Inuit look forward to contributing toward the drafting of a Circumpolar Polar Action Plan between the parties over the next two years.

-30-

Contact:

Stephen Hendrie
Director of Communications
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
Cell: (613) 277-3178
hendrie@itk.ca