Polar bear statue in U.K. heralds fight with Canadian Inuit over proposed trade ban.

[abc]

Polar bear statue in U.K. heralds fight with Canadian Inuit over proposed
trade ban.

BY RANDY BOSWELL, POSTMEDIA NEWS JANUARY 15, 2013

A life-sized sculpture of a huge polar bear has been unveiled near the
centre of London as part of a bid to rally politicians in Britain and
across Europe to back a global trade ban on rugs and other products
derived from the iconic Arctic animal � a plan strongly opposed by the
Canadian government and Inuit communities that rely on income derived
from what they consider a sustainable harvest.

The issue is coming to a head in advance of a major international meeting
that begins March 3 in Thailand, where delegates from Canada and other
signatories of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Flora and Fauna � CITES � are expected to debate the
risks of a continued trade in polar bear parts at a time when climate
change is seen by some experts as a serious threat to the creature�s
existence.

The polar bear, currently listed on Appendix II of the CITES treaty but
proposed for �uplisting� by the U.S. to the more restrictive Appendix I
category, was classified as a �species of special concern� by the federal
government in November 2011. That designation, prompted by what
Environment Minister Peter Kent called Canada�s �unique conservation
responsibility� to protect a Canadian population that represents about
two-thirds of the world�s estimated 23,000 polar bears, kickstarted a
three-year review of the management of the species in this country.

But the view that depleting sea ice is severely threatening polar bears
by making it harder for them to hunt seals has been hotly debated in
Canada, where Environment Canada officials are backing national Inuit
organizations in fighting the proposed CITES uplisting to the level of a
global trade ban.

�Yes, the polar bear is an iconic animal. And people will use it to their
advantage to try to pull on the heartstrings and loosen up people�s
wallets to donate to something that isn�t true or based on facts,� Terry
Audla, president of Ottawa-based Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, told Postmedia
News in response to the London statue unveiling. �But it�s getting a
little tiresome when Inuit are trying to live off the polar bear and are
managing it in such a way that it�s actually increasing the population,
and it�s actually working towards conservation of the polar bear.�

On Monday in London�s Sloane Square, a prominent public space a few
kilometres from Buckingham Palace, environmental activist Stanley Johnson
� father of London�s current mayor, Boris Johnson � unveiled the four-
metre-tall likeness of a polar bear stretched high on its hind legs.

The bronze beast was dubbed �Boris� by its creator, the British artist
Adam Binder, in honour of the beefy, fair-haired mayor of the U.K.
capital.

�The world is looking to the U.K. to stand up for what is right,� said
Johnson, who is also a former member of the European Parliament. �We have
a chance to reduce the threat to polar bears, an iconic globally
endangered species, by supporting through CITES an international ban on
trade in this species. . . . Our government should not stand by and do
nothing while yet another species is obliterated from the planet.�

A statement issued by Johnston, Binder, British conservation advocate
David Shepherd and U.K. polar explorer Jim McNeill added: �Second to
climate change and habitat loss, there is near universal agreement that
the annual polar bear hunt in Canada and the illegal sale of poached
Russian bears is one of the biggest threats to the species.�

British Prime Minister David Cameron and his top officials �hold in their
hands the fate of the world�s polar bear populations as they determine
whether to support a ban on the slaughter of this species for their
highly prized body parts, which are sold to international buyers,� the
statement also claimed, urging British citizens to sign a petition
pressing the U.K. and other European governments to support the proposed
CITES uplisting.

Audla has been lobbying officials in Europe and the United States in
recent months in a bid to block the uplisting, meeting with government
leaders in Washington, Paris and Brussels. He said Tuesday he also has a
trip to London planned ahead of the Thailand summit in March � a last-
ditch effort to convince British politicians to ignore the pleadings of
the �Boris� sculptor and his allies � followed by a mission to Bangkok
for the pivotal CITES meeting itself.

Audla said about 600 polar bears are currently hunted annually in the
Canadian Arctic according to a management plan carefully calibrated by
Inuit stakeholders and federal and territorial experts to preserve the
health of 13 distinct polar bear sub-populations in this country.

He said the Canadian population has increased from 14,000 to an estimated
16,000 in the past few years alone.

A global trade ban, he added, would not reduce the number of polar bears
killed each year in Canada, but could end the sport-hunting industry that
sees well-heeled adventurers from Europe, China and elsewhere travel to
the Canadian Arctic and spend as much as $20,000 each to hunt about half
of the 600 harvested annually in this country.

That commercial activity, he said, adds up to millions of dollars in
revenues for financially struggling northern communities.

�It�s very important,� said Audla. �There�s not a lot of options that we
have for economic means. We don�t have the industry or the agriculture,
we don�t have the Nike shoe company or PepisCo or whatever, that we�re
able to obtain jobs from. There�s no auto industry. What little money
that�s available to us is going to be taken away based on untruths.�