Canada and Greenland to jointly manage polar bears

Canada and Greenland have agreed to create a joint commission to recommend how many of the polar bears shared between the two countries can be hunted each year. Canada, along with the government of its vast Arctic territory of Nunavut and Greenland � which has home rule under Denmark � will form a panel to advise on how many of the up to 2,700 bears that wander between the two nations can be sustainably culled by native and trophy hunters. Representatives from Canadian Inuit groups will also be included on the commission. Canada has the world's largest polar bear population, estimated by the federal government to number 15,500. That number is split into 13 distinct sub-populations containing about two thirds of the global total. But the animals are under pressure from climate change and hunting. Critics have said current hunting levels in Nunavut and neighbouring Greenland are not sustainable. Canada is considering designating polar bears as a 'species of special concern'. The United States has listed its polar bears as a threatened species as melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean shrinks the bears' habit. The agreement will see the Canada and Greenland share hunting and research data for polar bears in the Kane Basin, which has as many as 200 bears, and the up to 2,500 bears that are in the Baffin Bay sub-population.