CALGARY — Conservation groups say a new report confirms that the number of grizzly bears in Alberta has dwindled while the government has for almost a decade put off a change to their protection status.

The report includes results of a DNA-based count the government ordered after the province's endangered species conservation committee recommended in 2002 that the bears be listed as threatened because their estimated numbers had dipped below 1,000.

The bears have yet to receive that designation, although the government has said it will make its decision this year.

The count suggests 681 grizzly bears, including those living in national parks, roam the province. Some 359 of those bears are considered mature adults capable of breeding.

"I think it's shockingly low," Carl Morrison of Action Grizzly Bear said Wednesday. "It's discouraging that we haven't seen any government action towards recovery since 2002."

The report, which was put together by Marco Festa-Bianchet, a professor at Sherbrooke University in Quebec, notes that "human activities in bear habitat, particularly the expanding network of roads, leads to unsustainable levels of bear mortality."

It suggests that bear populations in areas where there is little contact with humans -- such as around Grande Cache -- are likely stable, while numbers in other areas will likely continue to decline unless human-caused mortality is reduced.

"To reduce mortality, motorized access to bear habitat must be minimized and human activities that lead to conflicts with bears must be mitigated."

Dave Ealey, spokesman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, said the recommendation for the animals to be listed as threatened in 2002 was controversial, so the government wanted more scientific information before making a change.

"There was a lot of differences of opinion from different groups on what are the numbers, where are they occurring, what are the real issues with the bears," he said.

Ealey rejected the idea that the government has done nothing in the meantime. He said a recovery plan for the bears was started at that time and approved in 2007. The government also suspended the grizzly bear hunt in 2006, something that will continue through at least the end of this year, although the Alberta Fish and Game Association have been lobbying the government hard to bring the hunt back.

The report also looked at a number of recent government actions.

It notes that although controlling access and development in grizzly bear habitat is the most important conservation action, "there are currently no plans to reduce access."

It says the government's "BearSmart" program that tries to teach people how to reduce interactions with bears gets about $150,000 in annual funding. A similar program in Ontario gets $4.5 million.

The endangered species conservation committee will review the new report and decide whether to again recommend grizzlies be listed as threatened.

Ealey said he couldn't guarantee the government would follow the committee's recommendations. The final decision is up to Sustainable Resources Minister Mel Knight.

"We'd certainly look very closely at what information they provide."

Ealey also said that a change to endangered or threatened for the bears wouldn't necessarily keep the government from allowing them to be hunted. The hunt can be a valuable population control tool if animals are overly interacting with humans, he suggested.

Jim Pissot, head of the WildCanada Conservation Alliance, said the committee could go so far as to suggest the bears are now endangered.

Time is running out, he said. Humans may have the luxury of talking about the subject to no end, but the bears need immediate action as they come out of hibernation this spring.

"Bears are emerging right now, and hopefully they'll find some good news when they wake up."