Why Did Norway Ban Polar Bear Hunting?

• In Event: Science, Technology and Society in the Polar Regions

Abstract

This paper explores why Svalbard’s polar bears went from being considered legitimate subjects of hunting for both commerce and pleasure to being fully protected under Norwegian law within a decade in the 1960s and 70s. I begin by sketching the array of cultural and economic values attached to polar bear hunting at mid-century. In addition to underpinning a commercial hunt that legitimized Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard, polar bears were characterized as supplemental sources of entertainment and income for staff at meteorological stations (who were difficult to recruit) and as pests that damaged seal populations and thus undermined another industry. Even as concern over polar bear numbers grew elsewhere in the circumpolar north, Norwegian authorities hesitated to restrict hunting, even accepting arguments that it was necessary to maintain an ecological balance. I argue that the comparatively rapid change in opinion toward the end of the 1960s cannot be reduced to greater knowledge of bear populations and ecology – although this was certainly a factor. Rather, it must be linked to political shifts (notably Norwegian desires for multilateral political agreements covering Arctic issues) and to a decline in the cultural and economic value of polar bear hunting that reconfigured the calculus for regulation. An approach grounded in critical analysis of how values are inscribed upon polar bears helps illuminate this specific example while also suggesting fruitful new insights upon the wider question of how polar environments came to be regarded as fragile spaces in need of management and protection.

Author

• Peder Roberts, KTH Royal Institute of Technology