A case study of polar bear co-management in the eastern Canadian arctic

The purpose of this thesis is to document and analyse the development of the 1985 Clyde River - Broughton Island Memorandum of Understanding on Polar Bears. Based on a population estimate of 400 to 600 polar bears on Northeast Baffin Island, the quotas for Clyde River were reduced from 45 to 15, and the quotas for Broughton Island were reduced from 22 to 10. The case study approach to the analysis is organised according to various scales of analysis (from the individual to the global level) for the political, ecological, and cultural variables in the analysis. Three chapters are dedicated to a presentation of the three variables of analysis identified in the case study. The ecological variable is concerned with evaluating the biological data that were used to calculate a reduction in quotas. The political variable evaluates the structure and proceedings of the negotiation meetings, and the cultural variable evaluates the role that cultural meaning may have played in the creation of the agreement. The major finding is that a comanagement approach to wildlife management does not guarantee that decision-making power is equally distributed amongst user groups and territorial agencies