The PBSG is releasing resolutions passed at the Group’s 20th Working Meeting (held in Seattle, WA in June 2024) in advance of the publication of the Proceedings, which are expected sometime in late 2025. The first resolution is in reference to a change in harvest management in Nunavut, Canada that has conservation implications.
In 2019, the Government of Nunavut changed the targeted harvest sex ratio of polar bears from 2 males per female (2M:1F) to up to 1 male per female (1M:1F). The original targeted 2M:1F harvest sex ratio was first introduced in Nunavut in 2004 to maintain sustainable subpopulations while protecting adult females, as population productivity is most sensitive to numbers of mature adult females. Harvest levels to meet these objectives were determined for each subpopulation.
The new targeted up to 1M:1F harvest sex ratio was first implemented in Nunavut for the 2019-2020 harvest season. The harvest levels established under the previous 2M:1F harvest were not reduced but kept without any consideration of determining what an appropriate level of harvest should be under an up to 1M:1F harvest system, which therefore allows for an increase in the harvest of adult females.
The PBSG believes that such a change, without any reassessment of what appropriate harvest levels should be, increases the risk that harvest is no longer biologically sustainable. It is the position of the PBSG that the government and co-management organizations responsible for harvest management in Nunavut should undertake quantitative harvest risk assessments, following the sustainable harvest framework that was developed at the request of, and subsequently accepted by, the five Polar Bear Range States, prior to implementing such a change in harvest regime.
The PBSG highly recommends that these changes in Nunavut’s polar bear management are discussed in depth within the Polar Bear Range States and suggests that these changes are inconsistent with Article II of the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears (1973), which states that the Contracting Parties “shall manage polar bear populations in accordance with sound conservation practices based on the best available scientific data”.
The PBSG has raised this conservation concern at the Polar Bear Range States’ Biennial Meeting of the Parties 2020 (Longyearbyen, Svalbard, March 2020), Biennial Meeting of the Parties 2023 (virtual, October 2023), and via a formal letter to the Heads of Delegation, Polar Bear Range States, sent in late 2023 (below).
PBSG Resolution file (PDF below)
PBSG letter to the PBRS Heads of Delegation (PDF below)
Last modified: March 11, 2025
