You may have heard the news, but early this morning we got word that the nations meeting at the Convention on International Trade Endangered Species (CITES) rejected an United States proposal, suppor… Read more >
A big loss for polar bears -- with a small silver lining
By Andrew Wetzler,
March 18, 2010
You may have heard the news, but early this morning we got word that the nations meeting at the Convention on International Trade Endangered Species (CITES) rejected an United States proposal, supported and encouraged by NRDC, that would have ended the international commercial trade in polar bears and strengthened the regulation of polar bear sports hunting.
My colleague Zak Smith is in Doha, Qatar, and has been blogging about our fight for polar bears (you can read his posts here, here, and here).
There’s no doubt about it, the vote was a big loss. Canada alone takes about 300 polar bears for international trade and sports hunting each year—this is an unsustainable and unnecessary stress on the population. And the Canadian populations are particularly important to the fate of the bear. At the end of the day, our loss was the result of the failure of the European Union to vote to protect polar bears. It’s a particularly frustrating outcome, given that both the European Parliament and the European Commission had formally supported increased protections.
But I comfort myself that some good did come out of the process. As the result of the U.S. proposal, Canada significantly cut back on its polar bear quotas, in a (successful, as it turns out) attempt to head off further CITES restrictions. In the Baffin Bay, for example, Canada recently announced that it was going to cut it total quota from 105 bears to 65 bears over the next four years. Over the phase-in period alone, that’s 100 bears that won’t be shot thanks to our efforts. A lot of the credit goes to NRDC’s members and activists who have been incredibly active in making their voice heard to both the Canadian and the U.S. governments.
In the coming days our polar bear team will regroup and figure out the best way to continue the fight. There are still measures that the CITES convention can take to reduce polar bear trade and there are other international agreements and strategies we will be taking a close look at. Stay tuned…this fight is far from over.
To comment on this post, visit BioGem's blog site, Switchboard
CHICAGO (March 18, 2010) -- A proposal to end international trophy hunting and commercial trade in polar bear parts was voted down today at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endang… Read more >
Polar Bear Trophy Hunt Ban Shot Down
NRDC Press Release,
March 18, 2010
CHICAGO (March 18, 2010) -- A proposal to end international trophy hunting and commercial trade in polar bear parts was voted down today at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Sponsored by the United States and supported by the Natural Resources Defense Council with a coalition of groups, the proposal was considered critical to help ensure the long-term survival of polar bears in the face of climate change. According to NRDC legal and conservation experts, polar bears suffer from unsustainably high harvest levels driven by trophy hunters and an international market for their pelts, paws, teeth and other parts.
“While there has been a lot of positive momentum in polar bear conservation recently, this is a real setback,” said Andrew Wetzler, Director of NRDC’s Wildlife Conservation Project. “It keeps some of the most important populations of polar bears squarely in the crosshairs. We will continue work to find a new way to protect polar bears from this unsustainable hunt.”
A 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey conservatively estimated that the total population of polar bears would decline by over 70 percent in the next 45 years as global warming literally melts their habitat. Science-based estimates like these led the US to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2008. Nonetheless, Canada still allows the killing of 300 polar bears a year for international trade and trophy hunting, despite evidence that over half of the polar bear populations in Canada may suffer from overharvest.
NRDC is joined by a large group of international NGOs in pushing for this proposal that includes Animal Welfare Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, Eurogroup for Animals, Humane Society International, International Fund for Animal Welfare, ProWildlife and Species Survival Network. The proposal had sought to “uplist” the species to the more highly protected class 1 status under the international treaty. It lost by a vote of 48 - 62 with 11 abstentions.
Check the Switchboard blog for commentary and analysis from NRDC’s Zak Smith who has been participating in the CITES conference all week.
The political opposition in Manitoba, Canada has revived a proposal to run a major hydropower transmission line directly through the boreal forest on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. It’s an odd… Read more >
Stand Firm Manitoba: Protect the Heart of the Boreal and Say No to an Industrial Transmission Line
By Susan Casey-Lefkowitz,
March 17, 2010
The political opposition in Manitoba, Canada has revived a proposal to run a major hydropower transmission line directly through the boreal forest on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. It’s an odd choice for an election issue. The current government had already made a decision to work with local communities to protect one of North America’s most outstanding sanctuaries for woodland caribou, timber wolves and songbirds – the Heart of the Boreal – as a World Heritage Site. That means that local communities make decisions about what to protect and how to encourage environmentally healthy development. It means that there can be local roads and businesses, but that the bulk of this untouched wilderness of emerald forests, marshes, lakes, and rivers is recognized for its ecological and cultural values. It means no industrial transmission line in a part of the province where the wilderness values are so high.
Manitoba has made an interesting choice around placement of the transmission line and one that should resonate in the United States as well. Our need for energy is often in conflict with our need to protect special places. Manitoba decided that the Heart of the Boreal region was so valuable that it was worth paying more to put the industrial transmission line elsewhere. In fact, what I suspect Manitoba realized, is that developed corridors should always be preferred over wildlands. Even if the cost appears to be greater, in reality developers usually fail to include the cost of the controversies that accompany efforts to build in untouched places. These can include special mitigation measures, delays, litigation, and the need for additional public relations and outreach – all of which cost money. This is a lesson to learn from as we face conflicts over how to get energy to the markets where it is needed. The on-the-face monetary cost of a project is not the only thing to consider: ecological and cultural values of the land should be considered equally with other aspects of where a transmission line goes.
The international environmental community has long supported the efforts of local First Nations communities to establish a World Heritage Site in this region – called Pimachiowin Aki. The site would span 10.6 million acres in Manitoba and Ontario and encompass two provincial parks in addition to First Nations traditional territories. A hydropower transmission line through this region would seriously jeopardize the World Heritage Site nomination.
Already several years ago, NRDC designated this region as an international BioGem. NRDC members and activists have long recognized the Boreal forest wilderness on the east side of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba as an area of global importance, sending thousands of messages calling for protection over the last few years. Today, our Manitoba environmental partners launched a new website celebrating the Heart of the Boreal. And together with our Manitoba partners, we are once again asking the public to let Manitoba know that the Heart of the Boreal is deserving of permanent protection – and that means no industrial transmission line.
So, stand firm Manitoba. You have the right values in place and made a good decision to move forward with a World Heritage Site nomination that is based on local, First Nations community planning, instead of an industrial transmission line. I think that the opposition will learn that Manitobans value their natural heritage. And I think that they will learn that local communities appreciate having a say in what happens on their traditional lands.
To comment on this post, visit BioGem's blog site, Switchboard
_3.jpg "Polar bear (Tim Knepp, USFWS)")
