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Polar Bear
Polar Bear Projects
WWF has worked around the world’s Arctic regions for over 20 years and has created a strong voice for the conservation of biodiversity, protected areas, wildlife and cultural values central to the indigenous peoples of the North. We are the only environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) active in all of the Arctic countries and are a permanent observer to the Arctic Council. Our strategy focuses on supporting field research, educating the public, and reducing threats to polar bears, their habitat, and their prey. We also call on governments, corporations and individuals to reduce their carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, the main cause of warming in the Arctic.
Below follows a brief summary of our contributions to conserving polar bears and their habitat.
Weighing a polar bear
© WWF/Margaret Williams
WWF-US
Field Research
Around the Arctic, we are involved in a variety of projects that are revealing important infor mation about polar bear behavior and distribution and about the impacts of habitat loss on the species. We fund field research by the world's foremost experts on polar bears to find out how global warming is impacting the long-term condition of polar bears. Near Churchill, Manitoba, WWF-funded scientists go out in helicopters to assess and monitor the Western Hudson Bay polar bear population in relation to long-term changes in condition and reproduction caused by global warming.
Since 2001, we have supported the Norwegian Polar Institute’s research on polar bears and climate change. We track radio-collared polar bears to gather information about polar bear behavior. In 2007, WWF-US provided five satellite radio collars for Beaufort Sea polar bears that were featured on the WWF Polar Bear Tracker website. In 2008, WWF will support U.S. biologists’ field research in the Chukchi and Southern Beaufort Seas.
Wrangel Island Nature Reserve
Ursus maritimus -Polar bear. Churchill, Canada
© Francois Pierrel/WWF-Canon
We have provided technical support to the Wrangel Island Nature Reserve in the Russian Arctic, a place known as “the polar bear nursery” for its high concentration of maternity dens. In 2004, we successfully nominated the reserve as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We work with scientists and communities to identify and protect important habitats along the Russian Arctic coast. In the Beaufort Sea, WWF Canada’s marine program is working to create a national network of marine protected areas designed to protect species and marine habitat.
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
As we have for more than two decades, we will continue to work to preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. WWF, along with our conservation partners, will also advocate for protecting key polar bear habitats from offshore oil and gas development in other parts of the Arctic.
Engaging Governments and Communities
We address the protection of polar bears at the international, national and local levels. Internationally, we facilitate cross-border information exchanges in support of the U.S.-
Russia Agreement on the Conservation and Management of the Alaska-Chukotka Polar Bear Population. In Russia, we are aiding in the creation of a National Polar Bear Strategy. In the United States, we support the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal to list polar bears as “threatened” on the U.S. Endangered Species List, as well as Canada’s similar proposal to list the species as “threatened” under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.
We also recognize that, because indigenous people continue to depend heavily on marine resources for survival, the participation of native communities is critical to polar bear conservation and management strategies. We support efforts to engage these communities in the necessary science and monitoring and in reducing human-bear conflict.
Polar Bear Patrol
In the remote Arctic village of Vankarem, a small community of 140 on Russia’s Chukotka Peninsula, residents have been observing growing numbers of polar bears on land each fall. When a young girl was killed by a polar bear in a neighboring town in early 2006, Vankarem leaders and we initiated a “polar bear patrol” to help protect both people and bears.
Alexander Borodin (advisor to the governor of Chukotka), Victor Nikiforov (Director of regional programs for WWF Russia and the main Arctic program officer), Andrei Boltunov (polar bear biologist with the Russian Institute for Nature Conservation in Moscow), Sergey Kavriy (local native Chukchi) survey the pressure ridges. Arctic Ocean, Chukchi Sea; Vankarem village in Chukotka Province, Bering Sea and Kamchatka ecoregion, Russia.
© WWF/Margaret Williams
In its first field season in fall 2006, the experimental Umky Patrol (Umky is the Chukchi word for polar bear) proved to be highly successful. About 180 bears nearly surrounded the village for several weeks, but neither humans nor bears were harmed, thanks to the vigilant patrol members. With scientists providing some guidance, local people also used the opportunity to collect important information about the bears.
Through close cooperation with local hunters, leaders and residents of Vankarem and other coastal communities, we have piloted additional projects. In a village survey conducted in 2006, residents expressed widespread support for the creation of a protected area around a large walrus “haul-out” - or resting place - where tens of thousands of walrus concentrate in the fall. We worked with local and regional authorities and in 2007 the Cape Vankarem protected area was approved by the Chukotka regional government.
US-Russia Polar Bear Agreement
After several years of advocating for implementing legislation for the US-Russia polar bear agreement (signed in 2000, ratified by the US Senate in 2003), WWF was pleased to learn in January of the passage of this legislation. One of the first steps in moving the treaty along will be the formation of a bi-lateral commission, whose members will rely on the advice of polar bear experts regarding research priorities and management. In August, WWF co-hosted a meeting with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Geological Survey to bring Alaskan and Russian polar bear experts together to exchange information and outline priority programs going forward.
From Russia, the group consisted of experts from the Russian Institute of Nature Protection; the Chukotka Institute for Scientific Research for Fisheries and Oceanography, and the Russian native representative to the bilateral commission that will oversee implementation of the Agreement. The resulting recommendations from the August meeting will provide helpful guidance to the Commission, and WWF will also use the experts’ input to direct its own actions in the ecoregion.
WWF International Arctic Program - Norway
Research
Magnus ANDERSEN, Norwegian Polar Institute scientist, tagging the ear of a female polar bear (Ursus maritimus)that has been blood and fat tested. Arctic, Norway, Svalbard
© Tanya Peterson/WWF-Canon
WWF supports the work of Canadian polar bear scientists Dr. Ian Stirling and Dr. Nick Lunn’s work on monitoring the population and health of the western Hudson Bay polar bear population in Canada. The western Hudson Bay polar bear population is already in decline due to mostly climate change related stresses. We also support the Norwegian Polar Institute’s research on climate change and polar bears in Svalbard and funded polar bear blood sampling for toxic levels and impacts in Alaska and Russia.
Education
Through corporate sponsorship of Canon Europe, the WWF-Canon Polar Bear Tracker features an environmental education section specifically designed for seven to 11-year-old children and is translated into 13 languages. In addition to polar bears from Svalbard, the website features animals in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska and Hudson Bay, Canada whose movements can be observed thanks to satellite radio collars deployed on the polar bears.
Reduce Human-Wildlife Conflict
WWF supports WWF Russia and the Polar Bear Patrol project to reduce human-bear conflict and protect both polar bears and ensure the safety of residents in coastal communities.
WWF Canada
WWF Canada has supported polar bear science-based monitoring projects for the past 20 years in the Hudson Bay and Beaufort Sea areas.
Lenore Nadeau, Education Officer, WWF Canada, uses a screwdriver to tighten a satellite radio collar on a female Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) in Wapusk National Park, near the town of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.
© Kean Moynihan/WWF-Canon
See WWF-Canada’s Polar Bear Tracker!
Research
WWF supports Dr. Andrew Derocher’s (Univeristy of Alberta, and current chair of IUCN’s Polar Bear Specialist Group) work in Hudson Bay, focused on population ecology and movements in response to ecosystem changes.
- The "Tundra Buggy" Reports : WWF – in partnership with North America’s top polar bear researchers, conservationists, government leaders, photographers, and filmmakers – participated in an exciting global program organized by Polar Bears International (PBI) to alert the public that higher temperatures are having an immediate and negative impact on polar bears. In Churchill, Manitoba, WWF Polar Bear biologist Geoff York and WWF biologist Pete Ewins helped document and report on the ice conditions there and discuss how sea-ice changes affect polar bears.
Reduce Human-Wildlife Conflict
We are developing a “Polar Bear Patrol Project” to address human-bear conflicts in cooperation with the Nunavut Government and two to three local communities.
Climate Witness
We implemented a “Climate Witness” project in the Canadian Arctic in April 2006. The project focuses on indigenous observations of climate change and the impacts of hunting on polar bears.We also published a polar bear novel Inuit On Thin Ice in 2006 and a teacher’s manual in Canada and will partner with ‘Students on Ice’ during the International Polar year (IPY).
Marine Protected Areas
We work to create a national network of marine protected areas including the Beaufort Sea, an important area for polar bears and other globally significant biodiversity through its marine program. We will center future approaches on further scientific monitoring, studies of polar bear health (e.g., in Hudson Bay and perhaps other crucial polar bear populations), advocacy for polar bears and other key marine species and “hot spot” protection via network of marine protected areas.
Stop Oil and Gas Drilling
We work to preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, a key denning habitat for polar bears, from oil and gas development. We are also calling on Canadian Prime Minister Harper to take several immediate actions:
- Place a moratorium on new industrial development in areas of high value to polar bears. In particular, stop the June 2nd leasing of areas for oil and gas development in the Beaufort Sea, at least until proper planning has been done to protect sensitive habitats.
- Ensure any hunting for polar bears is fully sustainable.
- Most importantly, quickly stop, and then reverse the rise in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, so we are doing our part in the global fight against climate change
WWF Russia
Monitoring and Conservation
In 2006, WWF-Russia started the model project on monitoring and conservation of polar bears in the coastal villages of Chukotsky Autonomous Okrug. The project has been implemented by local indigenous citizens. We inform people on our activities, giving information about new protected areas, antipoaching activity and educational programs on a regular basis. The project is called “Bear Patrol” or “Umky Patrol” (Umky means a polar bear in We support work on implementing the U.S./Russia polar bear treaty on the conservation and management of the shared Alaska-Chukotka population of polar bears. We also support the Chukotka government to establish a network of regional protected areas for the protection of haulouts of the walrus and polar bear denning habitat and established a polar bear coastal monitoring scheme in the Barents ecoregion.
Members of the Bear Patrol
© WWF/Margaret Williams
Research
We fund work by polar bear researchers and community partners in the Russian Arctic to conduct outreach with partners in coastal settlements. We gather information about the status and behaviour of polar bear populations, assess the threat of illegal hunting and build sustainable management practices and local support for regulations – including establishment of harvest monitoring programs.
Wildlife Trade
We work to monitor illegal trade in polar bear skins on the Russian “black market.”
A National Polar Bear Plan for Russia
In Russia, through an agreement with the Ministry of Natural Resources, WWF is playing a central role in the preparation of a national plan for the protecting the polar bear. The plan, entitled, the “Conservation Strategy for the Polar Bears in Russian Part of the Arctic” is being prepared according to a standard structure for conservation strategies for rare species which must be approved by the Federal Ministry of the Nature Resources (MNR). The plan includes extensive biological information about the species and its prey; behavior; external factors such as climate change and socio-economic factors in the range of the species.
WWF Denmark/Greenland
Hunting
WWF Denmark is focusing on the effect of polar bear hunting in Greenland. According to a report by WWF Denmark in released in 2005, polar bear hunting in Greenland is unregulated. As a result, the population on the western coast is believed to be endangered. However, population data remains scarce, so recommended harvest levels are based on insufficient data and the real effect of hunting is unknown. We respect the rights of indigenous peoples to harvest marine mammals in a sustainable and responsible manner. Most hunting is done in a sustainable manner but overhunting is an additional stress on some polar bear populations.
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