Landfills, climate change fueling human-polar bear conflicts in Arctic: report

Arviat, a Nunavut community along the western coast of Hudson Bay, and communities in northern Ontario are starting to see polar bears come inland, specifically around landfills.

Climate change and human impacts on the land are behind a growing number of encounters between people and polar bears around the Arctic, new research concludes.

“What we have seen is an increase in intensity (of encounters) and increased occurrences in places where polar bears don’t normally occur,” said Geoff York, a researcher with Polar Bears International and co-author of a new paper published in Oryx, a journal from Cambridge University Press.

Although no agency keeps a formal count, York said conversations with front-line managers in all countries with polar bears suggest that run-ins with people are increasing — especially around growing communities and their landfills.

“Polar bears will come a long distance if they can smell food,” York said. “If they can find a reliable source of calories, they will go to extraordinary measures to come back.”

Open landfills are common across the North.

Arviat, a Nunavut community along the western coast of Hudson Bay, has an open landfill and a population that has grown 12 per cent since 2016. A 2014 survey found the number of polar bears using the dump grew each year since record keeping began in the 1960s —even though the local bear population is shrinking.

Communities in northern Ontario are also starting to see bears come inland, specifically around landfills.

Climate change is also playing a role.