WWF Supports Effort to Revive Traditional Polar Bear Conservation Ethic
WWF continues to support bi-lateral efforts to lay the groundwork for implementation of the US-Russia Agreement on the Conservation and Management of the Alaska Chukotka Polar Bear Population. The agreement was signed by both nations in 2000, and ratified by the Senate in 2003. However, Congress has failed to generate the implementing legislation necessary to enact the international conservation effort for this population. In the interim, WWF is supporting partners in Russia to put in place a system that will ensure sustainable management of the bears. When the joint agreement is finally activated, subsistence hunts for polar bears in Russia will occur legally for the first time since 1956.
WWF has provided support to the Chukotka Association of Traditional Marine Mammal Hunters, which is conducting outreach in coastal communities in advance of the Agreement. The Association recently produced an educational film describing the traditional rituals hunters practiced (before the hunt was banned) which reflected a strong conservation ethic. The Association is working to revive that ethic among the young generation, which will soon be hunting legally.
WWF has also provided support to polar bear biologists from the All-Russian Institute for Nature Protection. Andrey Boltunov and Stanislav Belikov are working closely with leaders of the Association to gather local knowledge on the status bear population, and to solicit input on draft management regulations. In 2005, Drs. Boltunev and Belikov traveled with Sergey Kavry and Vladilen Kavry of the Association to coastal villages of Vankarem, Amguema, and Egvekinot. When these regulations are officially accepted and put into place, they will be well known and in large part will have been crafted by local residents, the stewards of the Alaska Chukotka polar bear population.
