Russia, for the first time in its history, will estimate the polar bear population size in the Russian Federation. According to the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, such a decision was made as part of the polar bear population conservation and restoration initiative.
For the implementation of the project, a Road Map was developed. The full and detailed work plan will be proposed in 2020. The Road Map also provides for the implementation of major international agreements, including the 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears signed between the USSR, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the USA, as well as the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the US Government on the conservation and use of the Chukchi-Alaskan polar bear population signed in 2000, as reported by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
PJSC Rosneft will finance the operations.
When the Ecology national project was launched in 2019, the company was one of the first to express its intention to support the initiative of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources on “Business and Biodiversity” and inked an agreement with the ministry. As part of a public-private partnership, scientists will be able to record the number of polar bear population, estimate their habitats, and obtain information on current threats to the conservation of the species.
It is planned that in 2021 aerial surveys of polar bears will be carried out in the Chukchi and East Siberian seas, in 2022 - in the Laptev Sea and the Kara Sea, in 2023 - in the eastern Barents Sea and Franz Joseph Land. It will become the most complete data on population of polar bears received to date.
Blogs
