Ban on Polar Bear Trade Defeated at UN Wildlife Summit

(March 18) -- A U.S.-backed proposal to ban the international trade of polar bear skins, teeth and claws was rejected today at a U.N. wildlife meeting because of concerns for the economic welfare of indigenous communities in Canada and other countries who hunt the endangered animals.

The decision was made at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), a United Nations body with 175 member nations that regulates trade in animals. It's holding a 12-day summit in Doha, Qatar, and is considering scores of other proposals to protect the world's populations of elephants, tigers, rhinos and rare bluefin tuna.

American negotiators wanted to grant the polar bear the highest level of protection, arguing that its habitat is already severely threatened by climate change. Melting ice in the arctic will kill thousands of bears in the coming years, the U.S. warned, and commercial trade in polar bear products shouldn't be allowed to make the situation worse. The U.S. team was pushing for a total ban on the sale and movement of polar bear parts used for furs, rugs and taxidermy.

But countries like Canada, Norway and Greenland disagreed, arguing that there's not enough evidence to show that the trade poses a significant threat to bears in the wild. Those countries also have large indigenous communities that traditionally hunt and trade in polar bear skins, and they argued the U.S.-backed ban would hurt the livelihood of those aboriginal populations.

There are an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the wild, mostly in Canada. But U.S. negotiators offered projections that those numbers could decline by two-thirds by 2050 because of climate change in the Arctic.

"We're disappointed," said Jane Lyder, the U.S. Department of Interior's deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks. "But we understand that CITES is still trying to understand how to incorporate climate change into its decision making," she told The Associated Press.

Canada's delegates offered opposing statistics, showing that only 2 percent of Canadian polar bears are traded internationally, and that the country strictly regulates such commerce.

"There is no doubt that action must continue to ensure the conservation of polar bears. Canada's goal is long-term survival of polar bears," Canadian representative Basile Van Havre told the AP. "But Canada does not think the proposal is supported by facts."

An indigenous leader from Canada addressed the conference today, describing how his people have hunted polar bears for generations, mostly for food and furs to use for clothing and shelter. He said they do so in a sustainable way, and vowed to continue the trade.

"We have always cared for land and the wildlife because we have a lot to lose," Frank Pokiak told the delegates. "If it wasn't for polar bears and other wildlife that we harvest, we wouldn't exist today."

Polar bears are the world's largest meat-eaters on land, with an average male weighing up to 1,500 pounds. They're born on land but spend most of their lives hunting on ice over the frozen Arctic sea, which makes them particularly vulnerable to climate change. Arctic summers may be almost free of sea ice within 30 years, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted last year.