PBRS-Action Plan 2015-2025

POLAR BEAR RANGE STATES cIRCUMpolar action plan 2015 - 2025 2020 - 2023 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Acknowledgements Polar Bear Range States (PBRS) and Designated Agencies: • Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Gatineau, Québec.

• Greenland, Ministry of Fisheries and Hunting, Nuuk.

• Norway, Norwegian Environment Agency, Trondheim • Russian Federation, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Moscow.

• United States, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska.

This document is based on contribution from the: • •

Polar Bear Range States Circumpolar Action Plan Implementation Team (PBRS CAP-IT); and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Polar Bear Specialist Group (IUCN PBSG).

This document is a product of the representatives of the parties to the 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears. It is available as an electronic document from the Polar Bear Range States web site: https://polarbearagreement.org Citation: Polar Bear Range States (2021). Polar Bear Range States Circumpolar Action Plan 2015-2025; 2020-2023 Implementation Plan.

This document is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 . All photographs are subject to a separate restricted copyright and may not be reproduced without explicit consent, which should be sought directly from the copyright holder.

Cover photo credit: Florian Ledoux.

For more information on the Polar Bear Range State Circumpolar Action Plan see Polar Bear Range States web page: https://polarbearagreement.org/index.php/circumpolar-action-plan

Photo credit: Incredible Arctic /Shutterstock.com

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 4 PLAN VISION............................................................................................. 4 PLAN OBJECTIVES..................................................................................... 5 OBJECTIVE 1 - Track and reduce emerging threats to polar bears....................................5 OBJECTIVE 2 - Communicate to the public, policy makers, and legislators around the world the importance of mitigating GHG emissions to polar bear conservation ........................................................................................................5 OBJECTIVE 3 - Ensure the conservation of essential habitat for polar bears...................6 OBJECTIVE 4 - Ensure that harvest of polar bear subpopulations is managed in a biologically sustainable manner in accordance with sound conservation practices........................................................................................7 OBJECTIVE 5 - Manage human-polar bear interactions to ensure human safety and to minimize polar bear injury or mortality....................................................8 OBJECTIVE 6 - Ensure that international trade of polar bears is carried out according to conservation principles.................................................................................8 OBJECTIVE 7 - Carry out coordinated circumpolar population research and monitoring to monitor progress toward achieving the vision of the CAP........................................................................................................................ 10

THREATS TO POLAR BEARS.................................................................................... 12 IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK......................................................................... 12

2020 - 2023 ImplemEntation plan INTRODUCTION In 1973, Canada, Denmark, Norway, the United States, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics signed the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears. At the time the Agreement was signed, the most significant threat facing the polar bear was unregulated and unsustainable harvest. As a result of coordinated international efforts and effective management actions by the Range States since 1973, polar bear numbers in previously depleted subpopulations have grown. In 2015, the Range States adopted the first Circumpolar Action Plan (CAP) to address additional and emerging threats, including threats caused by climate change. Recognizing that robust domestic management systems are already in place, the CAP focuses on monitoring, research and management activities that are best addressed at an international level.

The first CAP was adopted as a 10-year plan (2015-2025) to be enacted via a series of two-to-three-year Implementation Plans. In 2020, a mid-term-review was conducted to evaluate progress to date and affirm priorities moving forward.

The 2020–2023 Implementation Plan is now underway, and the Range States are actively working towards its completion. This leaflet provides a brief overview of the work planned under each objective in the 2020-2023 implementation period.

PLAN OBJECTIVES OBJECTIVE 1 -

The Arctic is experiencing rapid climatic change and increased human development pressure. In this rapidly changing ecosystem, threats to polar bear conservation take many forms. While monitoring and addressing known threats is vitally important, identifying emerging threats and potential tipping points is equally important. For this reason, the Range States have identified the importance of tracking and reducing emerging threats to polar bears.

Track And reduce Emerging Threats to polar bears

OBJECTIVE 2 Communicate to the public, policy makers, and legislators around the world the importance of mitigating GHG

PLAN VISION

emissions to polar bear

The overarching vision of the Plan is:

Conservation

To secure the long-term persistence of polar bears in the wild that represent the genetic, behavioral, life-history and ecological diversity of the species.

The vision reflects the Range States’ position that polar bear conservation is a shared responsibility and that it is crucial for ecological reasons, and recognizes the importance of the polar bear to indigenous peoples of the circumpolar Arctic.

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The CAP identifies climate-mediated reductions in the extent and composition of sea ice to be the greatest threat to polar bears across their range.

Climate change represents a global challenge that needs to be resolved in the international arena.

Therefore, work under this objective is a Range States responsibility, and will provide an important contribution toward achieving the vision of the CAP. The work under Objective 2 in the 2020-2023 Implementation Plan is broken down into three actions: •

Develop a climate change communications plan that outlines key messages regarding the threat to the Arctic and to polar bears from climate change and the need for the global community to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

•

Identify strategic communications opportunities for the Range States to provide information regarding the threat to the Arctic and to polar bears from climate change and the need for the global community to reduce GHG emissions.

•

Enter into climate change communication partnerships with organizations that have targeted audiences and strong public reach.

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Photo credit: Florian Ledoux

Circumpolar Action PLAN (CAP)

In order the realize the vision, the Range States have developed seven key objectives.

OBJECTIVE 3 Ensure the conservation of essential habitat for polar bears

Essential habitats are areas required to support polar bears’ life history requirements, including foraging areas, denning areas, movement corridors, summer refugia, or areas used for mating or rearing young.

The protection of essential habitat is vitally important for long-term conservation.

Polar bears rely on sea ice habitat as a platform to hunt seals and it is likely that its quantity, quality, and availability will be reduced as climate change impacts progress. As denning is necessary for polar bear reproduction, identification and protection of maternity denning habitat is crucial.

Actions under this objective will apply an organized method, informed by experts, to identify essential habitat for polar bears, and assess its protective status. Important considerations include identification of essential habitat both now and under future climate change scenarios, and any gaps, such as the portion of essential that should be protected under various future climate change scenarios. Three actions comprise Objective 3: •

Define categories of habitat essential to polar bears and compile existing information to generate an inventory of essential habitat by categories.

•

Define levels of protective status of polar bear essential habitat.

•

Develop messages about the importance of conserving essential habitat.

OBJECTIVE 4 Ensure that harvest of polar bear subpopulations is managed in a biologically sustainable manner in accordance with sound conservation practices

This objective is to ensure that the opportunity for harvest of polar bears be available for future generations of Indigenous peoples living within the range of the polar bear. Achievement of this objective will require the continued long-term, sustainable management of harvest by Arctic Indigenous peoples and domestic management agencies. This objective will lay the groundwork for consistent assessments of harvest management regimes across the circumpolar Arctic. In order to determine if harvest is sustainable in a given sub-population (see map 1 on page 9), consistent definitions of the basic components needed to carry out an analysis are required. A harvest managed sustainably will help sustain polar bear subpopulations for future generations.

The work of Objective 4 is broken up into three actions (see below) that will form the foundation for a comprehensive report on polar bear population assessment to inform sustainable harvest management: •

Define the components necessary for a “quantitative assessment of the population”.

•

Define “biologically sustainable harvest” in terms of conserving polar bear subpopulations for future generations.

•

Define the components of a “demonstrated sustainable harvest management regime”.

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OBJECTIVE 5 Manage human-Polar bear interactions to ensure human safety and to minimize polar bear injury or

Photo credit: Sybille Klenzendorf

mortality

OBJECTIVE 6 Ensure that international trade of polar bears is carried out according to conservation principles

As polar bears spend more time on land as a result of receding sea ice, and as the number of people across the Arctic increases, the likelihood of interactions between humans and polar bears will increase. It is of paramount concern to the Range States to ensure the safety of people living and working in areas that are frequented by polar bears, while minimizing the loss of bears in defense of life and property.

Canada is the only country that allows the export of polar bear. To ensure that the best available information is being used to inform decisions made by Canada’s CITES Scientific and Management Authorities, as well as interested outside parties, Canada has commissioned a review and analysis of its polar bear harvest and trade from 2012 to 2021.

This objective aims to address two threats to polar bears (as outlined in the 2015-2025 Circumpolar Action Plan): unsustainable harvest and illegal take/poaching.

The work of Objective 5 is broken up into seven actions that will contribute to reducing the impact of the possible threat of increased interactions between humans and polar bears on the polar bear population – while reducing negative outcomes for people: •

Make available to all Range States, the Polar Bear Human Information Management System (PBHIMS framework); use Spatial Monitoring And Reporting Tool (SMART) where possible

•

Make available on the Range States’ website, polar bear deterrent training protocols from the U.S., Canada, and Norway

•

Establish baseline for polar bear injuries and deaths using existing data from 2020

•

Establish baseline for human injuries and deaths using existing data from 2006-2015

•

Report findings on human-polar bear conflicts that end in injury or death (to bears or humans) for each country or subpopulation

•

Develop standardized polar bear attack response protocols

•

Develop, and post to the Range States’ website, core polar bear safety messages for a general audience and more detailed guidelines for specific user groups (e.g., industry, guide-led tourist groups, hunting/subsistence camps, researchers) as needed.

The trade of species of wild animals and plants that are, or may be, threatened with extinction because of international trade, are regulated by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Exports of any polar bear specimens obtained during hunts are only permitted if it is the opinion of the exporting country’s CITES Scientific Authority that the trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild. The exporting country’s CITES Management Authority is responsible for issuing permits for the export of polar bear specimens when it has been determined that the trade is non-detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild.

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Map 1. Polar bear subpopulation areas. For more information see IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group: https://pbsg.npolar.no/web/en/status/population-map.html

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OBJECTIVE 7 CARRY OUT COORDINATED CIRCUMPOLAR POPULATION RESEARCH AND MONITORING TO MONITOR PROGRESS TOWARD ACHIEVING THE VISION OF THE CAP

Work under this objective will address monitoring of progress toward the CAP vision, as well as identifying and implementing research actions of an overarching nature.

Under this action, the Range States will work collaboratively to determine the feasibility of developing and implementing a monitoring plan for the Arctic Basin polar bear subpopulation, which is to a large extent beyond the jurisdiction of any one Party. The second action is focused on understanding the responses of polar bear subpopulations to climate change, enabling management of polar bears in an informed and adaptive way. The action will identify relevant work and any additional studies necessary to inform monitoring progress toward the CAP vision.

•

Investigate the feasibility of developing and implementing a long-term plan to monitor the Arctic Basin subpopulation.

•

Examine the following two actions, identify studies already conducted/published which address these questions, identify, in collaboration with the IUCN/SSC PBSG, any appropriate additional studies that could help monitor progress toward achieving the CAP vision: a) Investigate how the effects of climate change vary among polar bear subpopulations on both temporal and spatial scales; and

• • • • •

• •

• • •

Photo credit: Incredible Arctic/Shutterstock.com

b) Conduct a cumulative effects analysis of climate change and human activities on polar bear and their habitats.

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Figure 1. Threats to polar bears identified most likely to have an impact on the species during the lifetime of the CAP (2015-2025). The diagram shows the estimated level of concern (low, medium, high), and connection to the CAP objectives during the 2020-2023 Implementation Plan.

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Threats to polar bears The threats outlined in figure 1 are the ones that will have the greatest impact on global polar bear subpopulations for the life of the CAP (20152025) and are expected to increase in severity over time. These threats are not independent of one another; they overlap and can lead to amplified impacts on polar bears.

IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK The 2015-2025 CAP is reviewed and updated every two to three years and the implementation is organized in coinciding periods. The interval of the current implementation period is from 2020 to 2023.

The progress of the 2020-2023 Implementation Plan is regularly monitored and evaluated to facilitate successful performance and if necessary, adjustments of the plan to achieve the overall vision of the CAP: •

Periodic reports are presented orally every 3 months on the actions achievements.

•

Annual reports are compiled in March each year on the overall progress of actions and objectives towards the CAP goals.

•

The final report will summarize efforts undertaken during the 20202023 Implementation Plan period, and provide an in-depth evaluation of the performance towards the CAP vision.

These reports have also been/will be compiled for the first (2015-2017), second (2018-2020) and fourth (2024-2025) implementation periods.

The overall progress of the CAP is presented on the Range State web site: https://polarbearagreement.org/index.php/circumpolar-action-plan

Photo credit: Uryadnikov Sergei/Shutterstock.com

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Polar Bear Secretariat Borgir, Nordurslod 600 Akureyri, Iceland Tel: +354 462-3350 www.polarbearagreement.org