‘Polar bears could be extinct in 25 years’
Scientists feel that hunting and the trade in body parts are the most serious threat facing the polar bear
For a millennium, the majestic, lily-white polar bear
has lorded over the frozen wastes of the Arctic. But if two Russian
experts are to be believed, the enigmatic “monarch of the ice” could be
extinct in 25 years due to global warming and human incursions into
their traditional habitat.
“If current policies are
not changed, we can lose polar bears, which currently number
20,000-25,000 globally, within one (human) generation,” Nikita
Ovsyanikov, member of the polar bear specialist group of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said.
Ovsyanikov
and his compatriot, Masha Vorontsova, director of the International
Fund for Animal Welfare in Russia, were here for the 21st International
Conference on Bear Research and Management organised by the environment
and forests ministry and many wildlife NGOs.
The
polar bear (or Ursinus Maritimus), the largest member of the Ursidae
(bear) family, is also the largest terrestrial land carnivore and is
found largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean,
its surrounding seas and land masses.
“Today, this
area belongs to five nations: Denmark (which administers Greenland),
Norway (which administers the Svalbard archipelago), Canada, the United
States (of which Alaska is a part) and Russia,” said Ovsyanikov.
So,
why is the polar bear in grave danger? “It mainly faces threats such as
habitat loss due to global warming and continuing human incursions into
the Arctic, pollution, hunting for sport and subsistence as well as
trade in body parts,” he added.
Both scientists feel that hunting and the trade in body parts are the most serious threat facing the polar bear.
The
bear has been hunted since times immemorial by indigenous Arctic
people, including the Inuit and Eskimos in Alaska and Canada and Yupiks,
Nenets, Chukchis and Pomors in Russia. But they never hunted the
species in excess of their requirements.
Trouble
started with white European expansion and colonisation of the Arctic.
The Europeans brought modern hunting practices and the notion of supply
and demand of bear parts dictated by market forces. Everything has gone
downhill after that.
In the later part of the twentieth century, the five nations finally woke up to the threat.
“The Soviet Union banned all hunting in 1956,” Vorontsova said.
Canada began imposing hunting quotas in 1968.
“Norway
passed a series of increasingly strict regulations from 1965 to 1973
and has completely banned hunting since then. They only shoot some bears
in conflict situations,” said Ovsyanikov.
“The
United States began regulating hunting in 1971 and adopted the Marine
Mammal Protection Act in 1972. In 1973, the International Agreement on
the Conservation of Polar Bears was signed by all five nations,” said
Vorontsova.
The treaty was a landmark in polar bear conservation, but loopholes remain and have morphed into big threats.
“The
treaty allows hunting by local people using traditional methods. And
that is the most tricky part. Because the aboriginals, mostly in Canada
and Alaska, lease out their hunting quotas to foreign hunters, who in
turn indulge in overharvesting polar bears for trading their body parts
in foreign markets,” said Vorontsova.
According to
some estimates, each year, approximately 600 polar bears are hunted in
Canada and the parts of 441 are internationally traded.
“There
is a growing market for bear pelts in Russia and China. What adds to
the problem is that the polar bear is listed in Appendix 2 of CITES
(Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), rather than
Appendix 1 which would have guaranteed that there was no commercial
trade in its parts,” said Vorontsova.
The other threat facing polar bears is global warming.
“It is impacting populations in the Russian Arctic,” said Ovsyanikov.
“A
high percentage of cubs are lost. Females can’t breed. Individuals
become famished. They have to survive on land as coastal refugees,
instead of pack ice lost to warming. Also, there is pollution, oil
drilling and increased susceptibility to diseases.”
Still, global warming would not make the polar bear extinct.
“These
bears have survived six global warmings since they first appeared on
earth. They won’t disappear by global warming alone but by a combination
of factors,” said Ovsyanikov.
What is needed is more lobbying for the endangered animals, said Ovsyanikov.
“We
need a broad international lobbying and consensus to save the bear. If
we don’t do that, we will have only ourselves to blame.
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