International trade in polar bear trophies okay: CITES

The trade in trophies from legally-hunted and sustainably-managed polar bears is not detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild.

That’s what more than 200 global scientific experts from over 50 countries decided at the 28th meeting of the Animals Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, held in Tel Aviv, Israel from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3.

The CITES Animals Committee members reviewed trade levels for a wide range of animals, internationally traded as food products, clothes, skins, traditional medicines, tourist souvenirs and pets.

These animals included everything from the queen conch to the polar bear.

“The Committee’s Review of Significant Trade concluded that the current level of trade in polar bears, amongst others, is not detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild,” CITES said in a news release on the decision...

“This significant trade review by CITES on polar bear confirms what Inuit have been saying all along about the sustainability of our hunt, our management systems, and our trade.”

The United States, a CITES member, has recommended up-listing polar bear from CITES Appendix II to Appendix I.

A move to up-list polar bears to CITES Appendix I would put polar bears in a category which is reserved for the world’s most immediately endangered species. These species include tigers, gorillas, jaguars, rhinos and panda bears, which are threatened with extinction. And such an up-listing would ban all international trade in polar bear products...

This has been exerpted from 14 September 2015 edition of Nunatsiaq News Online.