NUNAVUT - Inuit are reacting with anger to a U.S. proposal to ban the commercial trade of polar bear products worldwide.

The sport hunting industry in Nunavut has already been hurt by a U.S. ban on the import of polar bear trophies. Inuit fear the U.S.'s new proposed global ban on the polar bear trade could kill it completely. - NNSL file photo

"I think the hunters will feel betrayed with this proposal if it goes forward," said Gabriel Nirlungayuk, director of wildlife for Nunavut Tunngavik Inc (NTI).

Inuit have been co-operating with the polar bear management system in place for the last 40 years, he said.

"And what do they get? A slap in the face."

U.S. assistant secretary of the interior Tom Strickland announced Oct. 16 he will put forward the ban proposal next March at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

"Unregulated international trade threatens the existence of dozens of species worldwide," reads a press release from Strickland's office.

"I don't understand where they're getting their information from," said Dan Shewchuk, Nunavut minister of environment. "We really feel that we have a very healthy polar bear population in Nunavut."

Inuit groups say that polar bear populations are increasing, not threatened.

"The polar bear population in Canada has grown from 8,000 in the 1970s to more than 15,000 bears today under the management system we have in place here in Canada," said Raymond Ningeocheak, NTI vice-president of finance, according to a NTI press release. "If the proposal is passed it will have a devastating effect on our communities."

The GN is "very disappointed" with the proposal and is working with the Canadian government to fight the move, said Shewchuk.

The federal government will be lobbying against it, according to Environment Canada. "Canada will continue to consult interested parties domestically and internationally to gather support in advance of the vote," said spokesperson Sujata Raisinghani, in an e-mail to Nunavut News/North.

The proposal will be debated and voted on at the conference. It requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass, according to Environment Canada.

It asks that polar bears be moved up a protection class to one where commercial trade of polar bear products is banned.

The polar bear hunt gets picked on unnecessarily, said Nirlungayuk.

"The polar bear, unfortunately he's a poster species for climate change," he said. "Black bears or grizzly bears are not sexy, I guess, but polar bears have become an iconic species."

Sport hunting in the territory has dwindled after the U.S. put an outright ban on polar bear imports in May 2008. It halted overnight the flow of American hunters who up to that point made up the majority of recreational bear hunters coming to Nunavut, Nirlungayuk said. In December 2008 the European Union banned polar bear imports from the Kane Basin and Baffin Bay areas in Nunavut.

The majority of sport hunters still coming are from the E.U., said Shewchuk.

If the proposal passes, "there will be no export to those countries at all."

Although the E.U. is not a party to CITES in itself, it has been fully implementing its regulations since Jan. 1, 1984, according to the E.U. website.

The proposal's passing likely wouldn't make a drastic difference to the number of polar bears hunted, according to Nirlungayuk, as most are hunted for their meat now. However, it is still going to hurt communities.

Hunters still sell the skins to supplement their income, he said, and on a good year, a large male could fetch around $1,225 - a nice financial boost to a hunter.

"It's very expensive in the communities because almost everything is flown in during the winter months," said Nirlungayuk. "People try to offset the cost by selling byproducts of the (polar bear) skin and they won't be able to do that."

For outfitters catering to polar bear hunters it would be devastating, said Abraham Qammaniq, secretary-treasurer of the Hall Beach Hunters and Trappers Association.

"I know guys who make up a majority of their income for the year in the bear-hunting season," he said. "Their window of opportunity is very limited and that is their only source of income."

It's going to hurt her community if the proposal passes, said Nancy Amaiualak, manager of Resolute's Hunters and Trappers Organization, because sport hunters spend money on hotels and food and services - precious dollars in a tiny hamlet.

"Maybe if the Americans want to do that, they should do that in Alaska only," she said.