Climate Change a Threat to Polar Bears – Norway to Host International Meeting Under the Polar Bear Agreement

Norway invites the Contracting Parties to the 1973 Polar Bear Agreement, Denmark/Greenland, Russia, USA and Canada, to a meeting of the parties in Tromsø spring 2009. The purpose of the meeting will be to enhance circumpolar cooperation on management of polar bear populations and to coordinate and establish more efficient conservation measures.

- The rapid warming of the Arctic and the reduction in the extent of sea ice is a serious threat to polar bears. Climate change also makes the polar bear more vulnerable to other threats such as hazardous chemicals, hunting, disturbances and encroachment upon their natural habitat. Many polar bear populations are shared between neighbouring countries, and polar bears migrate across national borders.  This means that activities in one area may affect polar bears in other countries. Climate change and increased industrial activity in many parts of the Arctic therefore requires reinforced international cooperation on the management of polar bears, says minister of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim.

Around 1970 widespread hunting had reduced polar bear populations in many parts of the Arctic, including Svalbard. The polar bear Range States Norway, Denmark/Greenland, Russia, USA and Canada entered into an agreement in 1973 to protect polar bears and their habitat. As a result hunting was reduced and the populations recovered. 

- Although the threats have changed, the 1973 Agreement continues to be a suitable framework for international cooperation on the management of polar bear populations , Solheim points out.

The five Contracting Parties met last time in Oslo 1981 and decided then that the agreement would be valid indefinitely. Later the focus has been on cooperation on research through the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group, and this has contributed to important and valuable knowledge about polar bears. We wish to strengthen this cooperation. On Svalbard the hunting of polar bear has been banned since 1972.  The key polar bear habitats on Svalbard are inside the extensive protected areas established in 1973, which in recent years have been considerably expanded.

- Climate change presents a far more serious threat to polar bears than we previously thought. This necessitates regular government meetings under the 1973 Polar Bear Agreement, in order to follow the development more closely and cooperate more efficiently on measures. Norway will therefore invite the other polar bear Range States to a meeting of the parties to the Polar Bear Agreement in Tromsø during spring 2009. I envisage that such meetings will be arranged every second year from now on, Solheim says. This is in accordance with the recommendations from an informal meeting between the five polar bear Range States in USA in June this year.
 
- Such revitalization of the Polar Bear Agreement will in our view contribute to a better coordination of research and management between the polar bear Range States. A follow up of the Polar Bear Agreement will also contribute to increased focus on the consequences of climate change, and could provide important input to other international processes related to climate, hazardous chemicals and habitat protection in the Arctic. Not least, such initiative will be important for the cooperation under the Arctic Council, where climate change, hazardous chemicals and protection of biological diversity in the Arctic are important issues, and where Norway at present holds the chairmanship, Solheim underlines.

- I will ask the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management and The Norwegian Polar Institute to prepare the meeting of the parties in Tromsø spring 2009, the minister of the environment and international development concludes.