Chapter II — Species of Special Concern 



location, age, and sex of bears killed. Although the 

 agreement is not legally binding as a matter of federal 

 law, both Alaska and Canadian Natives have largely 

 complied with the mutually agreed conservation 

 measures. 



U.S.-Russian Polar Bear Agreement — A rela- 

 tively discrete polar bear population, the western or 

 Bering-Chukchi Seas population, which occurs partial- 

 ly in Alaska and partially in Russia, has traditionally 

 been used for subsistence by Native people in both the 

 United States and Russia. As discussed in previous 

 annual reports, the Marine Mammal Commission 

 wrote to the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1992 about 

 the possible need for a cooperative U.S.-Russian 

 program to manage the take of polar bears from the 

 Bering-Chukchi Seas population. Such action was 

 initiated by the Fish and Wildlife Service on 22 

 October 1992 when the Service's Alaska Regional 

 Director and a representative of the Russian Ministry 

 of Ecology and Natural Resources signed a protocol 

 stating the parties' intentions to conclude a bilateral 

 agreement on the conservation and regulated use of 

 polar bears from the shared Bering-Chukchi Seas 

 population. The protocol called on both governments 

 to create special working groups composed of repre- 

 sentatives of government agencies and Native commu- 

 nities to prepare proposals for such an agreement and 

 to convene a meeting of the working groups to 

 prepare a draft agreement. 



At about the same time, informal discussions 

 between the Fish and Wildlife Service and Alaska 

 Native groups concerning the development of a polar 

 bear conservation plan identified the desirability of 

 forming an Alaska polar bear commission similar to 

 the Alaska Eskimo Walrus Commission and the 

 Alaska Sea Otter Commission to represent the inter- 

 ests of Alaska Native communities in matters affecting 

 the conservation of polar bears. In 1994 the Alaska 

 Nanuuq Commission was established to represent 

 Native polar bear hunters in 20 Alaska communities. 

 Formation of this group moved the negotiating pro- 

 cess along by giving the Fish and Wildlife Service a 

 single Alaska Native entity from which advice on a 

 U.S.-Russian polar bear agreement could be obtained. 



In 1994 representatives of Native organizations 

 and government agencies from the United States and 



Russia held technical discussions concerning joint 

 conservation of the shared population of polar bears 

 occupying the Chukchi, Bering, and eastern Siberian 

 Seas. As a result of those discussions, the parties 

 signed the Protocol on U.S. /Russia Technical Consul- 

 tation for the Conservation of Polar Bears of the 

 Chukchi/Bering Sea Regions on 9 September 1994. 

 Further scientific and technical discussions concerning 

 the proposed government-to-government agreement 

 were held in Russia during 1995. Participants includ- 

 ed both government officials and representatives of the 

 affected Native communities. The U.S. delegation at 

 that meeting included a representative of the Marine 

 Mammal Commission. 



Before the Department of the Interior could begin 

 to negotiate a formal bilateral polar bear agreement, 

 it was required to obtain authorization from the 

 Department of State. As discussed in the previous 

 annual report, in July 1996 the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service circulated a "Draft Environmental Assessment 

 on the Development of a U.S. /Russia Bilateral Agree- 

 ment for the Conservation of Polar Bears in the 

 Chukchi/Bering Seas." The assessment described 

 three basic alternatives: (1) no U.S. government 

 action, (2) government-to-Native agreements in each 

 country, or (3) a government-to-government agree- 

 ment with a Native-to-Native side agreement. The 

 third alternative, identified as the preferred one, called 

 for undertaking joint efforts with respect to research 

 and management, population and harvest monitoring, 

 enforcement, and habitat protection. A key feature of 

 the alternative was establishment of a joint commis- 

 sion, composed of government and Native representa- 

 tives from each country, to set annual take limits and 

 to oversee implementation of the agreement. The 

 Commission's comments on the draft environmental 

 assessment, provided to the Service on 20 December 

 1996, are discussed in the previous annual report. 



The Service published its final environmental 

 assessment on 12 March 1997, concluding that its 

 preferred alternative would have no significant envi- 

 ronmental impact. Shortly thereafter, the Service 

 prepared and transmitted to the Department of State a 

 request for authority to negotiate the agreement. The 

 request was granted early in 1998, and formal negoti- 

 ations between U.S. and Russian officials were held 

 9-12 February 1998 at Orcas Island, Washington. A 



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