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Six out of eight species of bears are vulnerable to extinction, which corresponds to 75% of the total population.
They are facing massive habitat loss due to logging, intensive agriculture, and human encroachment.
Demand for bear bile and other parts for Traditional medicine and cosmetic products has condemned an estimated 10,000 bears to spend their lives in farms across Asia, in terrible conditions. This as well as demand for bear parts as gourmet meat is believed to have led to an increase in illegal poaching in bear populations already under pressure.
Bears are still used to entertain crowds in some parts of the world, with practices such as bear baiting. Retired dancing bears, a practice only recently ended, still need to be cared for for the rest of their natural lives.
Bears are often considered pests, destroying crops and feared by their human neighbours. They are often killed in retaliation for perceived or real damage they cause to local economies and to people.
Pollution and climate change are already having an impact on some polar bear populations, whose immune and reproductive systems are being compromised. Food scarcity and the changes in surface ice coverage will become a real danger to polar bear populations over the next 50 years.