PM needs to act to prevent regional polar bear extinctions: WWF Canada
TORONTO — A conservation group is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to quickly act to prevent regional extinctions of polar bears.
The call from WWF Canada comes as the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada plans to deliver its recommendations to the federal government on Friday.
Dr. Peter Ewins says there is rapidly mounting evidence that polar bear populations are in crisis as a result of sea-ice habitat loss, over-hunting and industrial development pressures.
He says without strong leadership, some polar bear populations will become extinct by 2050.
Ewins points to the lack of federal action to reduce climate change-causing emissions, a 30 per cent decline in Baffin Bay's polar bear population in the past decade due to over-hunting, and a plan to sell off important habitat in the Beaufort Sea to oil and gas interests this June.
The group says Canada hosts two-thirds of the world's polar bears.
