'We all have a vested interest' in polar bear future: Prentice to summit

Scientists, Inuit, politicians and others met in Winnipeg Friday to discuss the future of Canada's polar bears, but it remains to be seen whether common ground can be found between scientists who say polar bear populations are declining and Inuit who say the numbers are healthy.

About 70 delegates from across Canada — including Nunavut, where most of Canada's polar bears are found — are in Winnipeg for the one-day polar bear round table, chaired by federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice.

Prentice opened talks Friday morning by telling delegates he wants to use the insights and information coming from the summit towards formal consultations on the polar bear's listing under the federal Species at Risk Act, the CBC's Jennifer Hunt reported from summit.

The act currently lists the polar bear as a species of special concern, which is one step down from a threatened species, and two steps below endangered.

Last year, a federal advisory committee recommended that the bear's status remain unchanged, despite calls from environmental activists and some scientists to follow the United States' lead and raise that level to threatened.

Polar bear a symbol of climate change

Prentice said the polar bear is a vital part of the Arctic economy and Inuit culture, but the bear has also become a symbol of climate change.

"We all have a vested interest to protect the polar bear," he said in his opening remarks. "The status of the polar bear is in the hands of many.… Ultimately, we must all work together."

Prentice said he also wants to use the outcomes of Friday's discussions towards government decisions related to the conservation and management of the polar bear.

While delegates at the round table agree that climate change and shrinking sea ice could affect the polar bear's future, opinion has long been split between biologists, who believe polar bear numbers are declining, and Inuit who insist the numbers are up.

That has led to disputes in the past year about polar bear hunting quotas in Nunavut, where many Inuit have long relied on hunting polar bears for their survival.

Rising polar bear numbers threaten safety

An observed rise in the number of polar bears has become a safety issue for Inuit. As an example, residents in Arviat, a hamlet in central Nunavut, feared for their safety as an unusually high number of polar bears wandered through the community for several weeks late last year.

A territorial hunting quota limited local hunters in the number of bears they could kill, so they were forced to let many of the bears roam freely.

But environmentalists at the round table said polar bears won't be around for long unless bold action is taken to curb climate change, over-hunting and industrial activity in the North.

Peter Ewins, conservation director with the World Wildlife Fund, told the meeting sea ice is thawing at an alarming rate, putting polar bears at grave risk.

Like Tigers in Asia, Ewins said polar bears are a species that has evolved to fit their harsh habitat. The sea ice is crucial for mating and helping them bulk up on fat for the summer, he said.

The spring ice thaw now happens three weeks earlier than it did in the 1970s giving the bears less time to fatten up and rear their young, Ewins said.

With the loss of sea ice, Ewins said polar bears lose weight, have fewer babies and clash with humans more often.

"The main problem is vanishing sea ice habitat for polar bears, widely accepted now as being driven mainly by human-induced, rapid climate change and our use of fossil fuels," Ewins told the gathering.

The government needs to protect polar bear habitat by curbing industrial activity in the North, giving some polar bear populations a chance to recover by limiting hunting and by taking the threat of climate change seriously, he said.

Inuit delegates at the summit, including representatives from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., called for more money to be invested into research on the impacts climate change may have on polar bears in the future.

However, Inuit delegates said such research must take Inuit traditional knowledge into account.