Living with Polar Bears?

Symposium dedicated to polar bears in the Arctic environment devoted to two fundamental questions: can we and do we want to live alongside the polar bears ?

The symbolic importance of the polar bear places it at the crossroads of current developments in the Arctic from an environmental, climate, economic, social and political point of view. Traditionally, Inuit live with polar bears, and their experience is paramount. But the new players engaged in Arctic development also have information to pass on regarding the management and understanding of this species and related issues in face of rapid environmental changes.

The cohabitation between polar bears and the development of human activities - is it possible? Unprecedented challenges for the riparian nations that want to open new mines, waterways, oil wells in an already destabilized environment by climate change that threatens the health status of the polar bear that now face these threats under the watchful eye of the international civil society. In connection with the Paris Climate Conference 2015 (COP21 / CMP11) to be held in December 2015 in Paris, this conference will highlight the difficulties but also the relationship between polar bears and the different human populations in the Arctic, the means implemented to cohabit daily and reflections to carry on developing the exploitation of Arctic resources. Scientists, diplomats, members of NGOs from France, Norway, Russia, Canada and the United States, will report on the place of the polar bear in the cosmology of the Inuit, the trafficking it is subject to, the geopolitics, cohabitation, methods of monitoring the bears in their movements and the preservation of their habitat.

The seminar is designed to encourage meetings and exchanges not only between scientists and the public, but also among representatives of different specialties that do not necessarily intersect on other occasions. The seminar is organized by the association Pôles Actions in cooperation with the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme Secretariat.