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Polar Bears on Thin IcePerectly at home in one o the worlds most orbidding environments,most polar bears drit along the Arctic on large chunks o oating ice,fnding mates, hunting or seals, and attening themselves up or the winter.

Without these thick rats o sea ice, the worlds largest bear could notsurvive. Yet at this moment, the polar bears Arctic habitat is literally meltingaway beneath it due to global warming. The polar bear is also under pressurerom over-hunting, industrial development, and toxic chemicals such asPCBs. The international community must take swit action to protect thepolar bear rom global warming and other man-made threats.

For more information contact:

Andrew Wetzler

awetzler@nrdc.org

or Susan Casey-Lefkowitz

sclefkowitz@nrdc.org

nrdc.org/policy

www.PolarBearSOS.org

April 2007

Natural Resources Defense Council

The polar bear could become the frst mammalto lose 100 percent o its habitat to global

warming. Scientifc data rom NASA andthe National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) shows that over the pastthree decades, more than a million square mileso sea ice (1,609,344 kilometers)an area the sizeo Norway, Denmark, and Sweden combinedhas disappeared. In some areas, the sea ice thatis let is melting about three weeks earlier than in

the pasta loss o critical weeks that leaves thebears less time to hunt and store up at or the fveto seven months emales spend ashore in summer,preparing to enter their maternity dens.

Scientists at the U.S. Center or AtmosphericResearch predict that, i the current rate o global

warming continues, the Arctic could be ice-reein the summer by 2040. As a result, wild polarbears could ace global extinction by the end othis century.

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Polar Bears

on Thin Ice

ClimateFacts

United States

Canada

Norway

Denmark /Greenland

Russia

Range State

Marine MammalProtection Act aims

to maintain or restorehealthy subpopulationlevels and regulatesimportation o polarbear parts romCanada.

Committee on theStatus o Endangered

Wildlie (COSEWIC)designated the polarbear as a species oSpecial Concern in2002.

Under the SvalbardEnvironmentalProtection Act, polarbears are protectedrom harvest androm disturbance

that would exposeeither bears or humans

to danger.

The Greenland HomeRule Governmentintroduced quotas or

the frst time in 2006under the ExecutiveOrder on the Protectionand Hunting o PolarBear.

Hunting has beenbanned since1956. Polar bearsubpopulations arelisted in Russias RedData Book as rare,uncertain status,and rehabilitated andrehabilitating.

Currently, harvest isnot regulated unless

the subpopulation isconsidered depleted.Laws provide little or nohabitat protection anddo not address globalwarming.

Does not provideprotection o the polar

bear or their habitat.Quotas are set orhunting, but some are

too high.

These laws do notprotect the bear rom

the impact o climatechange on the BarentsSea populationand destructivedevelopment by thepetroleum industry.

Actual polar beartake tends to beslightly higher

than the biologicalrecommendation(Western Greenland)or the quota (EastGreenland).

Illegal poaching posesa serious threat to thepopulations.

In January 2007, theU.S. proposed listing

the polar bear asthreatened under theEndangered SpeciesAct (ESA).

Listing and protections

under Species-at-Risk

Act, including possiblethreatened status orsome populations,under considerationor 2008.

The Greenland HomeRule Government inDecember 2006 passeda three-year plan

to reduce quotas inWest Greenland and isconsidering introducingsport hunting o polarbears as a means ooptimizing incomepotential or localcommunities.

Russia is consideringreintroducingsubsistence hunt.

Current PolarBear Protection

Challenges New or ProposedActions

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The continueddecline of summersea ice is likely to

push the populationsof polar bearstoward extinction

in this century.the Arctic climAte impAct

Assessment

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Polar Bears High Risk o Extinction

Is Recognized InternationallyThere are 19 polar bear subpopulationsthroughout the Arctic region and across theUnited States, Canada, Denmark/Greenland,Norway, and Russia. The total number o polarbears is thought to be between 20,000 and25,000, and 25 percent o the populations hasalready been classifed as "declining" by the

World Conservation Unions Polar Bear SpecialistGroup, the world's preeminent scientifc bodyor the conservation and management o thespecies. And the Union (known as IUCN) hasound that the number o polar bears in decline

could jump to more than 30 percent over thenext 45 years. The dwindling number has leadIUCN to ormally classiy polar bears as avulnerable species, defned as a species athigh risk o extinction in the wild in themedium-term uture.

The Convention on International Tradein Endangered Species o Wild Flora andFauna (CITES) currently lists the polar bearin Appendix II, which recognizes species notnecessarily threatened with extinction, but in

which trade must be controlled in order to avoid

over utilization incompatible with their survival.However, according to the Arctic ClimateImpact Assessment, scientifcally reliable studieshave shown that with the onslaught o global

warming, polar bears are unlikely to survive asa speciesmeaning that the CITES listing isno longer adequate.

Threats to Polar Bears Are Increasing

Global Warming: Early retreat o summer icedue to global warming reduces the bears huntingtime, while ragmentation and reduction osea ice makes it more difcult or polar bearsto travel and den. Polar bear prey, such as the

ringed seal, are also negatively aected by thedecline in sea ice, decreasing the amount o oodavailable to bears. Decreased sea ice extent alsoorces polar bears in some populations to swimlonger distances between land and ice, leadingto drownings during storm events. And as theoverall sea ice available to polar bears shrinks,polar bears are orced to spend longer periods otime on land, leading to more interactions withhumans and potentially increased mortality.

Toxic Chemicals in the Food Chain: Because

they are at the top o the ood chain, polarbears have accumulated considerable amountso industrial chemicals and pesticides in theirbodies. Pollutants such as PCBs and DDTs mayharm the bears hormonal systems and theirreproduction and immunological unctions.

Oil Development Encroaching on Habitat:Polar bears are sensitive to disturbances to theirdenning sites and may even abandon the denand their young. Oil development increases theamount o disturbances, with ship trafc andice-breaking vessels, and an accidental oil spill

would directly aect the bears and their prey. Inaddition, with decreased availability o oshoredenning sites, polar bears will depend more onareas like the 1002 Area o the Arctic National

Wildlie Reuge in Alaska, which is continuallyunder major pressure rom big oil.

Over-Harvesting: In 2001, IUCNs PolarBear Specialist Group (PBSG) ound thatmean annual kill exceeded sustainable kill inseven populations. Otentimes, there is limitedinormation on population sizes, making itdifcult to know where to set hunt limits.

Strong Scientifc Evidence Shows PolarBears Are Threatened by Extinction

The IUCN vulnerable listing and the growingconcerns among the range states are basedon scientifc evidence that polar bears areincreasingly threatened with extinction. Wildpolar bears live only in the Arctic and are totallydependent on Arctic sea ice or all o theiressential needs, including locating mates, fndingood, and raising their young. Many polar bearsubpopulations are already eeling the negativeimpacts o global warming and are consideredthreatened; fve o 13 Canadian subpopulationsare deemed to be in decline already.

Recent Evidence of

Polar Bear Decline1987-2004:According to theIUCN PBSG, the polar bear

population in the Arctics Weste

Hudson Bay declined rom

approximately 1,200 bears in 198

to 1,100 bears in 1995, and then t

ewer than 950 bears in 2004, du

in large part to ice loss.

September 2004:U.S. MinerManagement Service survey

o an area in the Beauort Seadocumented the drowning o at

least our polar bears when the s

ice retreated a record 160 miles

(257.5 kilometers) o the norther

coast. The U.S. Fish and Wildlie

Service ound that as many as 2

bears may have drowned during

the event.

Spring 2006: Scientists locatethe bodies o several bears that

had starved to death; reduced o

availability due to global warminhas also resulted in polar bear

cannibalism o the north coast o

Alaska and Canada.

April 2006: The U.S. NationalSnow and Ice Data Center

reported that winter sea ice

defned as the area with sea ice

concentrations o 15 percent or

greaterhas shrunk in the past

year by over 115,000 square mile

(14.8 million square kilometers)

reaching a new record low o 5.6

million square miles (14.5 million

square kilometers).

December 2006: Scientistsrom the U.S. National Center o

Atmospheric Research said that

the Arctic could be ice-ree in

summer as early as 2040, and in

next 20 years the extent o Arctic

summer sea ice will be reduced

80 percent.

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More Polar Bear Resources

NRDC: www.polarbearsos.org

IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG): http://pbsg.npolar.no/nProceedings o the 14th Working Meeting o the IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group,

2024 June 2005, Seattle, Washington, USA: http://pbsg.npolar.no/docs/PBSG14proc.pd

nIUCN Red List o Threatened Species, Polar Bear Assessment Inormation:

http://www.iucnredlist.org/

Arctic Climate Impact Assessment: http://www.acia.uaf.edu/nArctic Climate Impact Assessment: Impacts o a Warming Arctic, 2004: http://amap.no/acia/

nArctic Climate Impact Assessment Scientifc Report, 2005: http://amap.no/acia/

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:nRange Wide Status Review o the Polar Bear, USFWS, December 2006:

http://alaska.ws.gov/fsheries/mmm/polarbear/pd/Polar_Bear_%20Status_Assessment.pd

nProposed Rule 12-Month Petition Finding and Proposed Rule To List the Polar Bear

(Ursus maritimus) as Threatened Throughout Its Range, January 9, 2007:

http://alaska.ws.gov/fsheries/mmm/polarbear/issues.htm

We Can Do More to Protect

the Polar BearAct now to reduce global warming pollution:Global warming is not only the biggestthreat to polar bears, but it is also the leadingenvironmental threat to our planet as a whole.It is imperative that states set mandatory limitson global warming pollution, while promotingenergy efciency and renewable energy usage.

Enhance protections across all range states:Starting with listing polar bears under the U.S.Endangered Species Act and under the CanadianSpecies at Risk Act.

Polar Bears

on Thin Ice

ClimateFacts

www.nrdc.org Natural Resources Defense Council April 2007 Printed on recycled pape

Polar Bears Connection to the Arctics People

Protect the polar bear under CITES: Address

the global warming threat to species underCITES and start a consultation to move thepolar bear rom CITES Appendix II to CITES

Appendix I (species threatened with extinction).

Implement the 1973 International Agreementon the Conservation of Polar Bears includingthrough development of a range-widepolar bear conservation plan: The treatyimplementation needs to meet current needsby ocusing on habitat conservation and threatsrom global warming.

The polar bear has great signifcance or

Aboriginal Peoples in the Arctic region.

Aboriginal Peoples have traditionally

engaged in environmentally sustainable

hunting o polar bears or cultural and

subsistence purposes, and more recently

to help support their economies through

sport hunting enterprises. However, the

modern world now poses major threats

to the survival o polar bears, and polar

bear hunting has put signifcant pressure

on some polar bear populations. Inuit

traditional knowledge is also witnessing

rapid and major changes to both sea

ice habitats and polar bear behaviors

exactly in line with scientifc data on ice

and polar bears. Increased protections

or polar bear rom modern threats such

as global warming can help preserve the

ability o Aboriginal Peoples to continue

to engage in environmentally sustainable

hunting.