january-2010

Paws for thought
POLAR BEARS FORAGE FURTHER FOR FOOD
KLM’s daily workplace is a world full of
natural beauty, and rich in diversity. To
help sustain and protect the (sometimes
fragile) biodiversity in the destinations
to which it fl ies, the airline has set up a
programme called Destination Nature
to support and actively encourage the
conservation objectives of projects and
environmental organisations, such as
the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Through WWF’s Dutch branch (Wereld
Natuur Fonds, or WNF), KLM endorses and
promotes WWF ventures worldwide, from
marine reserve protection in Kenya to river
basin revitalisation in China.
Pole position
The Arctic is among the regions where the
WWF is active. It is also where the effects
of climate change are felt more keenly
than anywhere else on earth. Of particular
concern is the rate at which sea ice is
melting and how this is affecting the daily
life cycle, and ultimate survival, of one of
the region’s indigenous inhabitants – the
polar bear.
Sea ice is the polar bear’s natural
habitat. It is where they hunt for food –
mainly seals. Any reduction in the ice
has serious knock-on effects for the
animal’s daily round. Because sea ice is
now thawing sooner and freezing later
in the year, polar bears have to forage
further for food, and have less time to build
up valuable energy and stored fats for
themselves and their cubs.
Monitoring by the WWF has also
indicated other noticeable behavioural
shifts, including lower reproductive and
ARCTIC TEMPERATURES ARE RISING
KLM DESTINATION NATURE
growth rates, lower adult survival, altered
movement and den areas, increased bearhuman
interactions, and a reduction in
population size.
In the fi eld
As well as deploying fi eld workers to
collect data and information in the Arctic
region, WWF supports long-term research
by organisations such as the Norwegian
Polar Institute into the effects of climate
change on polar bears and sea ice in
Spitsbergen and Svalbard. This includes
‘tracking’ polar bears using GPS transmitters
– an activity which everyone can follow on
the WWF website www.panda.org.
“Higher temperatures are having a
direct effect not only on polar bears in
Hudson Bay, but on populations across
the Arctic,” says Geoff York, Polar Bear
“Any reduction in the
ice has serious
knock-on effects”
Conservation Coordinator for WWF’s
International Arctic Programme. “It is
important people realise that it is not too
late to reverse these trends.”
For more information on WWF’s activities
in the Arctic, and elsewhere, visit
www.panda.org. Details about KLM’s
Destination Nature programme can be
found on www.klm.com/csr – scroll down
under ‘The Community’.
See also ‘Keeping it cool’, pages 32-38,
for some stunning photography by
Jan Vermeer, taken in both Arctic and
Antarctic regions.
Holland Herald TRAVELLERS CHECK 87