Greenland to put quotas on polar bears

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE

Greenland’s cabinet has passed an executive order on the protection and hunting of polar bears, which will come into force on Oct. 15.

According to a press release from the Department of Fisheries and Hunting, the new order:

* provides year-round protection to cubs, regardless of sex, and mothers of cubs;
* prohibits the export of cubs;
* prohibits the export of polar bear gall bladders and sets new export rules and regulations;
* puts time limits on the hunt, banning hunting during July, August and September, depending on the region;
* introduces quotas as of Jan. 1, 2006; and,
* outlines permissible hunting methods.

Quotas will be “fixed in consideration of international agreements, biological advice, user knowledge and after consultation with the Hunting Council.” A proposal for these quotas will be tabled in the autumn.

Local authorities will have the responsibility to make sure the final quotas are respected.

As well, the new order sets a number of new administrative measures to regulate the polar bear hunt.

Part of the quota may be set aside for a trophy sports hunt. The rules and regulations for the sports hunt will be announced later in another executive order.

The Government of Nunavut responded to Greenland’s announcement with its own news release, in which Olayuk Akesuk, the GN’s minister of environment, said he “endorsed” Greenland’s new management system for polar bears.

Nunavut and Greenland share the Kane Basin, Baffin Bay and Davis Strait polar bear populations. A new shared management plan for hunting in these zones could help convince the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to ban all polar bear trophies from Nunavut and Greenland in November.