International polar bear forum, Moscow: who’s invited

Re: International Forum on Conservation of Polar Bears: December 3-6, Moscow.

[Updates added Dec. 2 and Dec. 3, 2013, as noted below]

[Updated Dec. 4, 2013: Final agenda here; and as noted below]

On Tuesday, setup begins for the Moscow meeting of all Arctic nations that signed the original agreement to protect polar bears back in 1973. In my post last week, I introduced the agenda (pdf here).

I’ve also made notes on the interesting mix of folks who’ve been invited.

Here’s a list of those invited who will get to participate in the plenary “Forum” presentations and discussions, which everyone can attend, including media [note that “Range States” are the five Arctic nations where polar bears reside]:

Those who get to make presentations to all attendees (including the media) in the plenary “Forum” sessions of the opening ceremonies include not only representatives of governments but the Director General of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) — last item on the list below:

Note that WWF stopped being primarily a defender-of-wildlife years ago – they are now a multimillion dollar environmental lobby organization that spends a large percentage of its donations on further fundraising.

I’ve discussed previously the WWF infiltration of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist group ( the official “scientific advisory body to the Range States,” see the Meeting of the Parties attendee list below), see posts here and here.

Not only is WWF invited but Coca-Cola, staunch defender of the polar bear when it helps boost their sales of Coke, gets to make a presentation at a panel session — see “Topic 2” below:

[Update Dec. 2, 2013: Coca-Cola is a corporate partner of WWF, as noted by journalist Donna LaFramboise, who has a new post at her blog NoFrakkingConsensus that discusses the relationship between WWF, Greenpeace, and big oil money.]

See the list below of those who get to attend a restricted set of talks — the so-called Meeting of the Parties — which explicitly excludes the media and NGOs:

Although I haven’t found out who will comprise the “official delegations” from each nation/range state, a November 15th announcement by Russian officials (“Polar bear conservation plans for the next decade to be discussed on 4-6 December in Moscow”) gave a list of the government representatives expected to attend:

“The polar bear range states will be represented by their ministers: Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergei Donskoi (Russia), Minister of the Environment Leona Aglukkaq (Canada), Head of the Department of Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture Karl Lyberth (Greenland), State Secretary of the Ministry of Climate and the Environment Lars Andreas Lunde (Norway), as well as Geoffrey Haskett, Regional Director for the Alaska Region of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.” [links and pdfs added]

I hope this helps you put the upcoming news reports in some kind of perspective.

[Update Dec. 3, 2013] Environment Canada issued a press release Dec. 2:
“Minister Aglukkaq to Meet with Polar Bear Range States in Russia” ]

[Update Dec. 4, 2013: Note on the final agenda, Eric Regehr, US Fish & Wildlife Service, will present the Bayesian network models (with the flawed assumptions) that predict a decline of 2/3 of the world’s polar bears. Steven Amstrup, spokesperson for Polar Bears International, will stand with Chairman Dag Vongraven, to represent the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group views.