The participants of the International Forum on the Conservation of Polar Bears, which will convene in Moscow on 4-6 December, will discuss the implementation of the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears since its signing in 1973, with special focus on the past 10 years. They will also outline their priorities for the next decade and discuss the draft Circumpolar Action Plan for polar bear conservation. 

Participants will additionally discuss current threats to the polar bear, primarily climate change, poaching, illegal trade and trafficking of polar bear products, and ways to combat these threats. Other issues on the forum’s agenda include the engagement of indigenous peoples in polar bear conservation, the use of aboriginal traditional knowledge in scientific research and monitoring as the foundation for political decision making, as well as data exchange between the polar bear range states. 

The forum will help to mobilise the efforts of the range states and approve additional measures to ensure the effective management of polar bears, the iconic symbol of the Arctic. 

Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergei Donskoi said that the meeting of delegates from all the polar bear range states offered a unique opportunity to join efforts in polar bear conservation. “We understand our global responsibility for the polar bears and will do everything in our power to ensure the conservation of the Arctic’s largest predator for future generations,” he said. 

Speakers at the forum include representatives of the principal nature conservation conventions: Braulio Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); John Sсаnlon, Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); and Bradnee Chambers, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), as well as the heads of the principal international nature conservation organisations: IUCN Deputy Director General/Managing Director Paul Engberg-Pedersen and WWF Director General James Leape.

Eight public nature conservation organisations, the associations of indigenous Arctic nations, donor and charity foundations, and the business community will also send representatives to the forum. 

The polar bear range states will be represented by their ministers: Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergei Donskoi (Russia), Minister of the Environment Leona Aglukkaq (Canada), Head of the Department of Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture Karl Lyberth (Greenland), State Secretary of the Ministry of Climate and the Environment Lars Andreas Lunde (Norway), as well as Geoffrey Haskett, Regional Director for the Alaska Region of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.