The Government of Nunavut is conducting community consultations to get feedback on the draft polar bear management plan. The insights gained during the meetings will help shape the final draft of the plan. - photo courtesy of Stephen Atkinson |
Communities could gauge polar bear target numbers
New management plan being outlined at public meetings
Miranda Scotland
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 17, 2014
NUNAVUT
The government of Nunavut is proposing a new way of managing polar bear harvests that will give communities more power and flexibility in determining a target population for bears in their area.
"What we have in mind is we will tell communities, 'Listen, this is what your population is now, say 2,500, what do you want this population to be?'" explained Drikus Gissing, GN director of wildlife.
Communities would then get to decide if they want to manage the population to stay the same, increase or decrease and scientists will help them identify a total allowable harvest that will help achieve that goal.
"Our obligation as a government is to ensure we maintain viable populations of polar bears. So as long as the target number is maintaining a healthy, viable population then it's not a conservation concern ... If they say we want to kill all the polar bears then obviously the government would say we cannot do that."
The proposed change is included in the draft polar bear management plan the government is taking to communities for input.
Public meetings have been held in the Kitikmeot and Kivalliq regions and Baffin Island is next on the schedule. Using feedback from those consultations, the government will put together a final draft and return it to the communities for comment. The finalized version will be presented to the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board for approval.
The new plan will replace the current memorandums of understanding for sub-populations.
So far the consultation process is going smoothly, said Gissing.
"At this stage it's been very, very positive," he said. "I think a large degree is because we're working so closely with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and regional wildlife organizations. They're part of the consultation team that's going around to all of the communities. So there is active involvement from Inuit organizations in this process."
However, Arviat South MLA Joe Savikataaq raised concerns in the legislative assembly March 11 about how much influence parties outside the territory will have on the final plan. It should be a made-in-Nunavut plan, he said.
"The bears may have been in Nunavut first, but we're here too," said Savikataaq. "We have to live with them. The plan has to respect the wishes of Nunavummiut who have an abundance of polar bears knocking at their doorstep."
Environment Minister Johnny Mike said he wishes the territory wasn't subject to outside forces. But that is the reality.
"Polar bears are an iconic species being heavily scrutinized by animal rights groups in the southern locales, and there are still many misinformed zealots who want to place the polar bear in the threatened category," said Mike. "The reason why this system is in place is to highlight the fact that this government is carefully and properly managing our polar bears."
The federal government labeled polar bears as a species of concern under Canada's Species at Risk Act in 2011. Subsequently, a management plan had to be developed within three years. The government is allowing jurisdictions to create their own plans, which they will then combine into a national management plan.
Nunavut's current system has been working well enough that Nunavummiut say they're noticing an increasing number of polar bears in and around communities. It's become a safety concern for residents who now have to be extra careful walking around town and going out on the land.
"Even in the cold season you always see fresh tracks of polar bear and it never used to be like that," said Zachary Oogark, chairperson of the Kurairojuark Hunters and Trappers Association.
Scientific studies done over the past few years have verified what Inuit are saying and indicate that polar bear populations in the territory are healthy and thriving, said Gissing.
However, hunters are seeing fewer and fewer male bears and an increasing number of females, added Oogark. Nunavut's current system favours male harvesting and the practice should be revisited, he continued.
"The quotas for the male and female, it's better for it to be equal, like half and half," said Oogark, adding his community currently gets 24 hunting tags, eight of which can be used for females. "The hunters say it looks like there are hardly any males."
Consultations are expected to run until April 10.
