U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 7 Grant: Polar Bear Co-management Support

This project involves: 1 ensuring that the Commission has adequate funding to participate in the operations necessary for comanagement of polar bears, including maintaining an office and staff, and conducting annual meetings and travel related to polar bear conservation; and 2 continuation of the process for implementing the U.S and Russia Agreement on the Conservation and Management of the Shared Alaska Chukotka Polar Bear Population.

Under this award, direct involvement by the Commission in comanagement of polar bears will help fulfill the Commissions mission to represent Alaska Natives on matters related to the subsistence use of polar bears, as well as to fulfill the Services species oversight responsibilities, including managing harvest. Specifically, the Commission will work with the Service to develop the Shared Harvest Management Plan and build awareness throughout the state and internationally regarding the protection and conservation of polar bears, as well as the importance of aboriginal subsistence hunting to the survival of Inupiat and Yupik Eskimos. This agreement is entered into under the authority of section 119 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Amendments of 1994 (16 U.S.C. Sec. 1388).