Iqaluit (May 22/06) - The man behind the World Conservation Union's threatened species list says Inuit groups shouldn't worry about the polar bear hunt just because that "charismatic species" is listed as vulnerable.

Craig Hilton-Taylor: "We're just saying to the world these species are facing a risk in the future."

The Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) criticized the union last week after the group listed the polar bear as vulnerable. ITK's Jose Kusugak said he worried the report would lead to calls for a clamp-down on the polar bear hunt.

But speaking from Charlottesville, Virginia, Craig Hilton-Taylor said that's not the case.

"Stopping hunting doesn't stop the problem," said the study's co-ordinator.

The polar bear was one of 40,000 mammals studied in 1996 and reassessed this year, he said, and like a lot of species, is threatened by climate change, not traditional hunting.

Both the ICC and ITK are members of the union and say they should have been consulted on the polar bear's status, but Hilton-Taylor said with so many species involved, that's just not possible.

"We're just saying to the world these species are facing a risk in the future," he said.

Hilton-Taylor did say an appeals process for the results is in place if scientific data exists to challenge the union's conclusions.