The Harvest of Polar Bears Across the Circumpolar North

Abstract

Harvest of polar bears by aboriginal peoples has occurred for millennia across the circumpolar Arctic. While harvest for sport and the commercial fur trade increased dramatically as southerners expanded into the Arctic, the 1973 international Agreement for the Conservation of Polar Bears curtailed harvest largely to aboriginal peoples. This Agreement, catalyzed by global concern for declining polar bear populations, is a hallmark for international cooperation in conservation. In Russia, polar bear harvest has been illegal since 1957, although there are concerns of poaching by local people for food security and also for the black market fur trade. Norway banned all harvest with their ratification of the Agreement. The USA allows for polar bear harvest by the Inupiat of Alaska. Quotas for the two populations shared with the USA are determined by an international user-to-user agreement between aboriginal people of Alaska and Canada and an international agreement between the USA and Russia, respectively. In Greenland, polar bears are harvested by professional Inuit hunters under a quota system, currently based on historic numbers. In most of Canada, where two-thirds of the world’s polar bears are harvested, anyone can harvest a polar bear but only within a quota system assigned to and managed by Inuit communities. This harvest is based not only on scientific information, but also on historic levels by treaty and local traditional ecological knowledge. Globally, polar bear harvest averages 798 (44 SD) per year. The vast majority is for subsistence, with 6% for sport (Canada), and a lesser proportion for defense of life and property. The legal international market for polar bear hides is supplied only by exports from Canada. Climate change poses a greater threat to polar bears than do the current levels of harvest. However, habitat change and harvest interact because of the increasing use of land by polar bears. Further, there are scientific and conservation questions about the appropriateness of harvesting polar bears, even for subsistence, from populations that are declining due to climate change.