United States, Russia Agree on Bear Preservation
Reuters, Copyright 2000
October 16, 2000
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia and the United States on Monday agreed to joint management and preservation of a group of between 3,000 and 5,000 polar bears who move back and forth across the border north of the Bering Strait.
Under the agreement, signed at a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, they agreed to set up a joint commission to set an annual limit on the number of polar bears that native peoples can hunt or capture.
Representatives of two groups of native peoples will have equal representation on the four-member commission, alongside the delegates of the two governments.
The agreement applies to the distinct population of Alaska-Chukotka polar bears, most of which breed on Wrangel Island on the Russian side of the border. In search of seals, their staple diet, the bears travel thousands of miles a year across the Chukchi Sea, mostly on ice floes.
The agreement, which has been under negotiation for eight years, limits hunting to the native peoples of the area and prohibits certain types of hunting, such as taking cubs, females with cubs or bears in dens, hunting in aircraft, large boats or vehicles, and using poisons, traps or snares.
The two countries also agree to cooperation in scientific research on the polar bears.
Altogether the world has between 22,000 and 28,000 polar bears, spread over territory controlled by Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States.
The World Wildlife Fund says they face an uncertain future because of the effect on their environment of climate change, pollution, poaching and overfishing.