Help save the polar bear

Polar bears face many threats -- from climate change to pollution to oil and gas development. The commercial trade of polar bears skins and parts is also causing a devastating decline in their numbers. Please act today to help us get the polar bear uplisted to Appendix 1 of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species.

We have prepared a template email for you to send to your MP. We encourage you to personalise this copy to make it more effective. Please ensure that you are polite at all times.

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I feel I must write to you to express my concern about the dangers facing polar bears. Many of us are aware of the dangers they face with the devastating impact on sea ice that climate change is causing in the Arctic, but with only 20-25,000 left in the wild, it is also critical that something be done to stop the compounding effect of the international trade in polar bear skins and parts.

Hundreds of polar bears are killed each year in Canada for the international trade. All other countries with polar bear populations – USA, Russia, Denmark (Greenland) and Norway – have banned the international trade in their countries, rightly viewing this trade as a very significant threat to polar bears. In the last five years the prices that polar bear pelts have fetched at Canadian auctions have more than doubled (from £1250 in 2007 to £3,250 in 2012). The price of a dead polar bear reached an all-time high last year of over £30,000 in luxury retailers in Russia. The numbers of polar bears being killed has jumped up in line with the price they are fetching, which shows that the situation will only get worse unless something is done.

As if the ravages of the legal trade weren’t bad enough, the Canadian trade is creating a smokescreen for illegal trade in other countries. Trade permits required for legal sale of Canadian bears are being illegally sold online in Russia for around US$ 1000. Despite its polar bear trade ban, Russia is losing about 200 animals a year to poachers, who are using the Canadian trade as a cover for their sales.

The USA (supported by Russia) has proposed that polar bears receive the highest protection at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). CITES meets every few years and the next meeting is in March 2013 in Bangkok. (The proposal requests that polar bears are listed on Appendix I, which would mean a total ban on international commercial trade). The UK has yet to come out in support of this ban on international trade of polar bears. As the EU votes in one bloc at CITES, and given the UK’s influence within the EU, it is very important that the UK takes a positive position, which will encourage others to do the same.

Please could you raise this issue with Richard Benyon in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs? With polar bear numbers expected to decline by 2/3 by 2050, and with polar bear trade profits increasing as more and more are killed each year, action must be taken before it is too late for polar bears.

PS There is also EDM 825 on this issue, which I would be most grateful if you could sign if you are able.

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