145 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 T.M. Herrmann, T. Martin (eds.), Indigenous Peoples’ Governance of Land and Protected Territories in the Arctic, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-25035-9_8 Conflicting Understandings in Polar Bear Co-management in the Inuit Nunangat: Enacting Inuit Knowledge and Identity Stéphanie Vaudry Abstract The co-management of polar bears between scientists and the Inuit in Nunavut has been fraught with tension. This chapter explores the Inuit’s perspective by highlighting where the bear fits within Inuit cosmology and how it influences their relationships with the animal, with respect to hunting. Since 2005, environ- mentalists have tried to ban polar bear hunting on an international scale and to get the animal put on the list of species threatened with extinction. This has had a major impact on already fragile northern economies, as it discourages sport hunting, which many Inuit count on for needed income. After analyzing the data, it appears that sport hunting has positive effects on Inuit communities: it provides economic and material resources all throughout the year, but also allows for the reaffirmation of Inuit identity and the transmission of Inuit knowledge to younger generations. Keywords Co-management conflicts • Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit • Inuit Knowledge • Polar bears sport hunting • Nunavut 1 Introduction Wildlife biologists make hunters unhappy. They make regulations and apply them to us without our consultation. These are policies without thought that make our lives difficult (in Kunuk 2010). The hunting of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in the Canadian Arctic has been subject to controversy since the 2005 call from the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to place the animal on the list of threatened species. This reaction came about following the Government of Nunavut’s initiative to increase quotas in January 2005 (see Dowsley and Wenzel 2008). From that time on, there have been several advertisements, such as that of Coca-Cola in partnership with the World S. Vaudry (*) Department of Anthropology, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada e-mail: stephanie.vaudry-gauthier.1@ulaval.ca stephanie.vaudry-gauthier.1@ulaval.ca