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The home rule government of Greenland has decided to tighten the regulations on polar bear hunting as a direct response to a WWF report released on 28 April 2005. The report says the populations of polar bears in Greenland are in danger if no action is taken.
The home rule government says they will first limit hunting through regulations and decide on concrete quotas in January next year.
Today there are about 22,000 polar bears worldwide. Approximately 70% of these live in Nunavut and Greenland. Around 203 bears are killed every year in Greenland, both by local hunters and by tourists. However, the planned introduction of polar bear trophy hunting by the Greenland home rule government in 2004 met much criticism.
Hunting remains the biggest threat to polar bears in Greenland. Apart for hunting, polarbears are threatened by toxic chemicals transported to the Arctic from the south and habitat change due to climate change and oil exploration. Read more about polar bears on WWF's Polar Bear Tracker. | 
