This spring, on April 16 and 17, 2024, CIER and partners hosted the “Let’s Talk Polar Bears” workshop at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, on the Long Plain Madison Reserve – Treaty 1, Winnipeg.

The workshop, part of the Polar Bear Conservation and Recovery Strategy, was created as an engagement session that included stakeholders and members of Indigenous Nations and organizations.

A highlight of the workshop included a visit to the Assiniboine Park Zoo to meet with polar bear biologists, and to witness the polar bears in person.

These workshops are crucial to recovery planning for species at risk. The engagement sessions inform on the Government of Manitoba’s Polar Bear Conservation and Recovery Strategy, which will then form the relevant section of the National Polar Bear Management Plan. The federal component of the plan will be drafted by our partners at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), as required by the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA).

This national plan links the jurisdictional plans and recovery strategies, and addresses matters that fall primarily under jurisdictional authority while ensuring that Indigenous rights are protected. Information from the workshop will form the Manitoba portion of the federal management plan.

ECCC and the Government of Manitoba continue to collaborate to encourage Indigenous participation in polar bear conservation in Manitoba’s Western Hudson Bay sub-population.