MONTREAL (AFP) — Leaders of Canada's Inuit community opposed efforts by US environmentalists to put polar bears on the endangered species list, warning that hunting restrictions would hurt their livelihood.
Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit of Canada, said a petition by environmentalists to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) seeking to protect the Arctic bears is driven more by politics than ecological imperative.
"They're doing this in a very public way by using the polar bear for political reasons against the (George W.) Bush administration over greenhouse gas emissions, and as Inuit, we fundamentally disagree with such tactics," said Simon, whose group represents native Canadians living in northern Quebec and the northwest territories of Yukon, and Nunavut in northern Canada.
"The polar bear is a very important subsistence, economic, cultural, conservation, management, and rights concern for Inuit in Canada," she said in a statement Monday.
"It seems the media, environmental groups, and the public are looking at this in overly simplistic black and white terms as the demise of the polar bear from climate change and sports hunting."
Duane Smith, president of the Canadian branch of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents about 150,000 Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia, said the polar bears in Canada are hunted humanely and responsibly.
"Our hunters and guides benefit economically, and we are able to continue with our culture, enjoy the benefits of what we use, and ensure that this is done in a responsible and sustainable manner," he said, adding that in his view the environmentalists' petition was "meant for publicity."
The USFWS has said it will make its decision within the next month.
US environmentalists, who insist that polar bears are under pressure due to rapidly disappearing habitat caused by global warming, say hunting has further depopulated and endangered the species.
They point to geological models predicting a two-thirds decline in the polar bear population by 2050 including in Canada, which is home to about half the world's population of some 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears.
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