Description

8. CIRCUMPOLAR ACTION PLAN

SUMMARY

8.4 CAP Objective 4: Ensure that harvest of polar bear subpopulations is managed in a biologically sustainable manner in accordance with sound conservation practices.

This presentation reviews CAP Objective 4, which focused on ensuring harvest of polar bear subpopulations is managed in a biologically sustainable manner in accordance with sound conservation practices.

The presentation highlights how the PBRS successfully advanced five of six interrelated action items: HM-A1, A2 and A3 which were initially combined into a 2022 white paper defining a quantitative assessment of the population (A1), biologically sustainable harvest in terms of conserving polar bear subpopulations for future generations (A2) and demonstrated sustainable harvest management regime (A3) and published as a peer reviewed journal article “International consensus principles for the sustainable harvest of polar bears” in Conservation Biology in March 2025. Importantly, the principles outlined in the paper are not prescriptive, and there is no formal mechanism of enforcement. Furthermore, the principles are based primarily on a Western science approach to wildlife management and do not necessarily reflect all Indigenous-centered ways of defining or achieving sustainability. The PBRS HMA4 Harvest Regime Table Report summarizes a description of the harvest regime for each of the 20 polar bear subpopulations. Finally, HMA6 collated available data from harvested bears and how to analyze that data in a white paper entitled “Uses of harvest information to estimate demographic parameters for polar bears (Ursus maritimus).”

The presentation concludes by reiterating the recommendation that the Range States revisit and reevaluate their current subpopulation harvest regime descriptions against the agreed-to international consensus principles for the sustainable harvest of polar bears and share that evaluation with the Range States. This would inform a discussion among the Range States at the Meeting of the Parties. Given the principles are based primarily on a western science approach to harvest management and may not represent Indigenous-centered ways of defining or achieving sustainability, the Range States should factor in Indigenous and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK) into their harvest regimes as appropriate.