Urgent: Stop the Polar Bear Rug Trade

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BACKGROUND | CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

Adding to polar bears’ already bleak prospects from climate change, risky offshore drilling and toxic contamination, the international trade in endangered species parts is booming. The price for polar bear fur reached a record high last year as the bears’ numbers shrink along with their sea-ice habitat.

The Obama government is considering pushing for greater protections under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. At the last CITES negotiations, the United States led the charge to ban all commercial trade in polar bear parts — but Canada blocked our efforts. This year the Russian Federation has promised to support a trade ban on polar bear parts if the United States introduces the resolution.

The deadline for introducing the resolution is this week.

Please contact the White House now and ask President Barack Obama’s government to take a stand for polar bears and champion these urgently needed trade restrictions.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Please click HERE to submit correspondence to President Obama


SAMPLE MESSAGE

Dear President Obama,

I strongly urge you to propose uplisting polar bears to Appendix I status under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

If polar bears are going to have any chance of surviving in a warming Arctic, we must reduce all other threats to the species. Hundreds of polar bears are killed each year for the rug trade. This trade must be curtailed.

The Russian Federation has promised to back the United States if your government leads the way with an Appendix 1 resolution.

Please propose a CITES listing to protect polar bears under Appendix I this week and follow-through to advance their listing through the CITES process over the coming months.

Thank you.

magnificent predators,
the kings of the ice,
not commodities,
nor items to be priced!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson