IUCN

This status survey and conservation action plan describes the status and conservation needs of the eight bear species of the world. These species currently live in more than 65 countries/autonomous regions in four continents. They are a diverse group of large mammals living in a variety of habitats from tropical rain forests to arctic ice. Bears are the umbrella species in most of the ecosystems they inhabit. The conservation of bears and their habitats will preserve the most biodiversity in these areas and focus management efforts on preserving watershed resources that also sustain human populations.

Conservation efforts for bears in North America and Western Europe are much more intensive and coordinated than in Asia or Latin America where research and management are minimal or nonexistent. The exception to this in Asia is the intensive conservation of the giant panda in China. The greatest threats to bears exist in Asia, the Middle East, and parts of South America. (Table 1).

All bear species have declined in numbers and distribution due to the impacts of human activities. Major human activities that impact bears are habitat alteration and destruction resulting from forest conversion to agriculture, human settlement in bear habitat, and excessive forest harvest. Unregulated killing of bears for sport, sale of their parts in medicinal products, protection of crops or livestock, and fear of these powerful animals has led to their decline.

Asian bears face a particularly destructive combination of all these threats as well as a critical lack of knowledge about their status, distribution, and requirements for survival. Many bear populations in these areas will disappear before they are ever documented.

Bear populations at greatest risk include Asiatic black bear populations in Baluchistan, Taiwan, and many areas of Southeast Asia; many small isolated sloth bear populations throughout their range; sun bear populations throughout their range; brown bear populations in Mongolia Tibet, France, Spain, and Italy; all giant panda populations; and the spectacled bear populations in Venezuela, Columbia, and the desert populations in Peru.

Initiate surveys of status and distribution for Asian bears; particularly sun bears and Asiatic black bears in Southeast Asia and southwest Asia, and brown bears in the Middle East and southern Asia.
Develop cooperative projects to work with select countries in the range of sun bears, Asiatic black bears, spectacled bears, and Asian brown bears to establish local managers with knowledge of and experience with bears and to develop management plans. This is particularly important in countries with unknown bear populations like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Venezuela and in countries with significant bear populations where more effort is needed such as China, Far East Russia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru.
Enhance cross-border management efforts as many of the best remaining populations and habitats exist across international borders such as Peru-Bolivia-Ecuador, Columbia-Venezuela, Laos-Vietnam, and Greece-Bulgaria-Macedonia-Albania, and France-Spain.
Support research projects to develop basic knowledge of habitat requirements, population status and survey methods, and mortality management to serve as the biological basis for management plans.
Document the impacts of illegal trade in bears in Asian countries and select study areas to document these impacts on representative populations of Asiatic black bears in China and in places in Southeast Asia such as in Laos or Vietnam.
Link bears to ecosystem health and human community prosperity in countries within the range of each species with projects that focus on the needs of bears, humans and their shared resources.
Study the relationship of forest harvest to sun bear and spectacled bear food habits and habitat use in tropical forests where harvest pressure is high and where the impacts of harvest are unknown.
Work with local wildlife managers to develop sound research programs, population survey techniques, and sustainable harvest plans in eastern European countries such as Romania and Bulgaria.

This action plan attempts to summarize a vast amount of information. It details much of what we know about bears, but the gaps clearly show what we do not know and where we need to place our conservation efforts in the future if we are to stop the decline of bear populations worldwide.

Species	Distribution areas	Status	Threats	Conservation efforts
Giant panda	China	Endangered	Small numbers; fragmented populations	Intensive
Asiatic black bear	Asia	Threatened to Endangered	Highly fragmented; virtually unknown in the wild; ongoing killing for parts trade	None
Sun bear	Southeast Asia	Threatened or Endangered but basically unknown	Highly fragmented; unknown in the wild; habitat conversion	None
Sloth bear	Indian subcontinent	Threatened	Highly fragmented; intensive human pressures	Few
Spectacled bear	South America	Threatened	Habitat loss; illegal hunting; lack of sustainable resource use by local people	Few