Russia promised to ban the hunting of polar bears
Russia has decided to impose a complete ban on the hunting of polar bears this year. It has been announced by the initiative around the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Last year the commission for the United States and Russia reached an agreement allowing a quota of 29 polar bears to be killed each year in each country. However, a program initiated under the auspices of Vladimir Putin notified of a complete ban for 2011.
This decision is much appreciated by conservation organization European Wildlife. “The Russian initiative may result in a lower pressure on endangered polar bears which are threatened not only by hunters but by climate change as well. Therefore, a support of other countries where bear hunting is still legal would be welcome, ensuring a better chance for this endangered species to survive,” says Dalibor Dostal, the director of conservation organization European Wildlife.
The Polar Bear is an endangered species. Due to the threat of extinction of these animals, hunting regulations started coming into practice during 1950. In 1973, all five native countries of the Polar Bear – Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Norway (Svalbard), Soviet Union and the United States of America – signed the Oslo Convention determining the conditions under which the bear hunting would be allowed. Norway was the only country that banned the hunting of polar bears completely.
In Greenland, the hunting was restricted in 1994, and in 2005 the restriction was extended with governmental regulation. Until 2005 there were no restrictions for the natives at all, after that a quota of 150 bears a year was established.
According to American experts, climate change could cause the extinction of two thirds of population of polar bears by 2050.
