Alaska, Chukotka sign agreement to manage polar bears

TAMAR BEN-YOSEF

February 01, 2008 at 1:16PM AKST

A historic agreement of polar bear management cooperation between Alaska Natives and the Native people of Chukotka, Russia, was signed on Jan. 18 in Nome.

The Alaska Nanuuq Commission, reflecting the Inupiat name for polar bear, met with the Association of Traditional Marine Mammal Hunters of Chukotka during the commission’s annual meeting.

Alaska is home to two polar bear populations, one in the Bering and Chukchi Seas, which is shared with Chukotka, and another in the Beaufort Sea, which is shared with Canada.

The two groups finalized the agreement on the conservation of the shared population – an agreement that will implement the U.S./Russia Polar Bear Agreement that was signed on Oct. 16, 2000.

This agreement will allow the Native people of Chukotka to legally harvest the bears for subsistence use, as Alaska Natives have been allowed by the International Polar Bear Treaty.

Prior to the October 2000 agreement, relations between Alaska Natives and Chukotka, with regard to polar bears, were not as close as they are today, according to Charles Johnson, Alaska Nanuuq Commission executive director.

"We did not have much common ground," Johnson said.

"Once we established that we were talking about something that would benefit them as well, the relationship could improve (their) understanding of the main resources and each other," he said.

The 2000 agreement was a dramatic step towards improving democracy in the Russian region, according to a statement made by the Russian representatives, minutes after signing the agreement more than seven years ago, Johnson said.

Until that time, the Native people’s involvement in management or government was steeply reduced by earlier administrations.

In 1956, Chukotka Natives were prohibited from hunting the bears, despite their reliance on the mammal for subsistence.

In 1989, the Russians reclassified the population as a recovered species and notified the United States that they wanted to permit Natives to participate in subsistence hunting.

From the point of view of U.S. polar bear management, the Chukotka Natives have been harvesting the bears illegally ever since then.

Over the past eight years, the Nanuuq commission, along with scientists from both regions, created a management plan modeled after an Alaska management plan set by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and conducted workshops for the Russians on research techniques such as marking and tagging, said Johnson.

As a result of this final agreement the U.S./Russia Polar Bear Treaty established a four-member Joint Commission, which will set harvest limits and other polar bear policies.

The members will be:

• the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources Department of Protected Resources, representing the government of Russia,

• the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

• the Association of Traditional Marine Mammal Hunters of Chukotka, representing the Native people of Chukotka,

• and the Alaska Nanuuq Commission, representing Alaska Natives.

The legislation to implement the treaty, signed by President Bush on Jan. 12, 2007, also mandated that the treaty would be implemented by a Native-to-Native agreement.

When the joint commission sets harvest limits, the Alaska Natives Coalition will allocate quotas on the Alaska side and its counterpart will allocate in Chukotka, according to Johnson.

The polar bear population in the Southern Beaufort Sea is estimated to be between 1,400-2,000 bears.

Less is known of the Chukchi population, but it is estimated to be between 2,000-3,000 animals, according to the Alaska Nanuuq Commission.

During the January meeting, elections to the commission were held. Vice Chairman Enoch Oktollik of Wainwright was elected as chairman, Victor Karmun of Kotzebue was elected vice chairman, Raymond Tocktoo of Brevig Mission was elected as secretary, Jerad Kanooka of Gambell was elected as treasurer, and Truman Kava of Savoonga was elected as sergeant at arms.

Tamar Ben-Yosef can be reached at (907) 348-2419 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 419.

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