Objective-5 Actions

Make available on the RS website Bear deterrent training protocols from the U.S., Canada, and Norway

Summary of the Action:
This action will create a document containing an annotated list of polar bear deterrents programs and training protocols currently in use across the polar bear range states.  For each program/protocol, a short summary will be provided about the program, its history, and the number of people trained.  Where applicable, information about how to contact the proponents and arrange for a training session will be provided.

Action Lead:
Sam Iverson (Environment and Climate Change Canada, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Participants:
Karen Lone (Norway)
Craig Perham (United States)
Additional subgroup members may be added later

Duration of action:
2020-2023

Deliverables (output):

• D1. A document containing an annotated list of polar bear deterrents programs and training protocols currently in use across the polar bear range states. For each program/protocol, a short summary will be provided about the program, its history, and the number of people trained. Where applicable, information about how to contact the proponents and arrange for a training session will be provided

Impact (outcome):
The action will serve as a resource for individuals and organizations seeking to implement polar bear deterrence programs in their area.

Dissemination:
The finished

Action HBC-A8:
Develop Template for site specific conflict mitigation plans

Definition:
Provide a template for developing site-specific, jurisdictional (e.g., community, military site, industrial site, etc.) conflict management plans and standardized training protocols.

Summary of the Action:
The action focuses on providing tools to entities that want to develop conflict management plans, through providing a template and making information on important topics available. The core activity is compiling existing conflict management plans and create template(s), which can serve as a basis for any entity throughout the Range States that wishes to develop jurisdictional and site-specific (e.g., community, military site, industrial operations) conflict management plans.

Action Leads and participants:

Lindsey S. Mangipane (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Alice Garrett (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Duration of action:
May 2024 - October 2025

Deliverables

Develop, and post to the RS website, core polar bear safety messages for a general audience and more detailed guidelines for specific user groups (e.g., industry, guide-led tourist groups, hunting/subsistence camps, researchers) as needed

Summary of the Action:
Develop, and post to the RS website, core polar bear safety messages for a general audience and more detailed guidelines for specific user groups (e.g., industry, guide-led tourist groups, hunting/subsistence camps, researchers) as needed.  One such product is tourism-operator guidelines to be published on the RS website and shared with The Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) etc.

Action Lead:
Karen Lone (Norwegian Environment Agency, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )

Participants:
Sub-group:

Tom Smith (US)
Geoff York (PBI)
Sam Iverson (Canada)
Dick Schideler (US)
Martyn Obbard

Duration of action:
2020-2023

Deliverables (output):

• D1. A document containing core safety messages and how they can be communicated to a general audience
• D2. Safety messages guidelines for tourism-operators
• D3. Safety messages guidelines for industry
• D4. Safety messages guidelines for independent

Develop standardized polar bear attack response protocols

Summary of the Action:
This action will create a template that can serve as a basis for any entity throughout the Range States that wishes to develop a site-, area-, or community-specific polar bear attack response plan.

Action Leads:
Karen Lone (Norwegian Environment Agency, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )
Lindsey Mangipane (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Participants:
Sub-group members:  

Lindsey Mangipane, U.S.
Craig Perham, U.S.
Olga Krever, Russian Federation

Duration of action:
Twelve months, flexible timing for start-up if needed (suggested start-up and timeline is noted below).

Deliverables (output):

• A template that identifies the primary elements necessary to safely and effectively respond to incidents

Action HBC-A5:
Report findings on human-bear conflicts which end in injury or death (to bears or humans) annually on the RS website for each country or subpopulation

This webpage is under construction

Summary of the Action:

The Range States report annually on their website the number of polar bears killed and injured, and the number of humans killed and injured, to track how this is changing over time.
The format and routines of the data collection was established during the CAP Implementation Plan 2020-2023 period (HBC-A5). Reporting of the baseline data and the data for 2020 was  covered in closely related actions HBC-A3 and HBC-A4.

Action Lead:

TBD

Participants:

TBD

Duration of action:

The action started during the 2020-2022 Implementation period. The action will continue as an onging reporting routine. 

Deliverables (output):

• D1

Report findings on human-bear conflicts which end in injury or death (to bears or humans) annually on the RS website for each country or subpopulation

Summary of the Action:
The Range States want to report annually on their website the number of polar bears killed and injured, and the number of humans killed and injured, to track how this is changing over time. This action concerns establishing the format and routines for this in 2022 and 2023. Reporting of the baseline data and the data for 2020 is covered in closely related actions HBC-A3 and HBC-A4.

Action Lead:
Karen Lone (Norwegian Environment Agency, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )

Participants:
Sub-group members:

Lindsey Mangipane (US)
Sam Iverson (Canada)
Jesper Ødegård Jacobsen (Greenland)

Duration of action:
2020-2022. The action is currently formulated as an indefinite, ongoing action. However, the action will be considered complete when the Range States have reported for two years in a row, and the reporting routines are established.

Deliverables (output):

• External: Table that is published on the Range States website with the number of incidents in any year, that is updated

Establish baseline for human injuries and deaths using existing data from 2006-2015

Summary of the Action:
The Range States intend to report the number of humans killed or injured by polar bears over time. Action HBC-A4 will develop a baseline number of bears killed and injured. Annual reporting of this metric will then be carried out under action HBC-A5 so that the Range States can track trends over time.

Action Lead:
Lindsey Mangipane (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Participants:
Sub-group members:

Karen Lone (Norway)
Jesper Ødegård Jacobsen (Greenland)
Sam Iverson (Canada)
Lindsey Mangipane (U.S.)
Alexander Gruzdev (Russia)

Duration of action:
June 2020- November 2020

Deliverables (output):

• A baseline number of humans killed by polar bears annually from 2006-2015
• A baseline number of humans injured by polar bears annually from 2006-2015
• A baseline number number of incidents in which humans were killed or injured by polar bears (i.e., were multiple humans killed or injured in one incident).
• The number of humans killed or injured by polar bears annually from 2016-2019 (and the number of incidents in which injuries or deaths occurred in) to document progress since CAP implementation
• A graphic representation of the data that can be displayed on the PBRS website
  
  

Impact (outcome):
This baseline can be used as a metric from which to gauge current and future

Establish baseline for bear injuries and deaths using existing data from 2020

Summary of the Action:
The Range States intend to report the number of polar bears killed and injured in human-bear conflict situations over time. Action HBC-A3 will develop a baseline number of bears killed and injured. Annual reporting of this metric will then be carried out under action HBC-A5 so that the Range States can track trends over time.

Action Lead:
Lindsey Mangipane (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
 

Participants:
Sub-group members:

Karen Lone (Norway)
Jesper Ødegård Jacobsen (Greenland)
Sam Iverson (Canada)
Lindsey Mangipane (U.S.A)
Alexander Gruzdev (Russia)
 

Duration of action:
June 2020- April 2021
 

Deliverables (output):

• A baseline number of polar bears that were injured or killed by humans in conflict situations in 2020.
• Definitions of “bears killed in conflict situations” and “bears injured in conflict situations”
• A graphic representation of the data that can be displayed on the PBRS website
  
  

 Impact (outcome):
Although a baseline from before the CAP was implemented in 2015 would be the most informative metric for gauging progress, conflict data was not collected in a consistent way among the Range States in the past. In some jurisdictions, conflict bears are legally removed through subsistence harvest, and are therefore reported as harvest rather

Make available to all Range States the Polar Bear Human Information Management System (PBHIMS); use SMART where possible

Summary of the Action:
There is a need to systematically collect data on interactions between polar bears and humans. This will enable a data-based assessment of bear-human interactions and aid a scientific framework for preventing negative bear-human interactions in the future. This action helps to make the PBHIMS data collection framework available to stakeholders and authorities within the Range States. The software SMART is a complete data management system, that will be tailored and adapted to the needs of the various users/data collectors. The work involves tailoring and testing the system in pilot sites, and, in the jurisdictions that want it, implementing it more broadly or as a formal reporting tool.

Action Leads: 
Karen Lone (Norwegian Environment Agency, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Sybille Klenzendorf (WWWF-Arctic, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Participants:
Sub-group members (some in the capacity as contact persons for pilot testing): 

Karen Lone (Norway)
Jesper Ødegård Jacobsen (Greenland)
Sam Iverson (Canada)
Geoff York (PBI, in Churchill)
Alexander Gruzdev (Wrangel Island Reserve)
Eric Regehr