#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia gave explanations on information that appeared in the media about plans to allegedly allow hunting for Red Book polar bears, which has been banned since 1957. Recall that since 2019, the polar bear is one of the 13 priority rare species that are under threat of extinction.
Now in Russia there are four populations of polar bears: the Barents sea, Kara, Laptev and Chukchi-Alaskan ones. All of them are under the protection of the Red Book. The species is also included in the International Red List.

In 2000, Russia and the United States signed an agreement on the joint preserving and use of the Chukchi-Alaskan population. The indigenous people are allowed to hunt for it strictly within the quota and without the right to transfer to third parties. The possibility of transferring hunting rights exists only in Canada, but only in the presence of the native resident to whom this quota belongs.
“Over the 20 years of the agreement, Russia has never used the right to issue a quota for hunting polar bears. Today in our country there is a moratorium on the capture of the predator. There are no plans to allow hunting for it”, the department explained.
Now the main threat to the Red Book predator is climate change, conflicts between humans and bears, irrational hunting in countries where hunting is allowed, mining, pollution of the Arctic, poaching, shipping, unregulated tourism, diseases and parasites.
“On August 1, 2021, amendments to the federal laws On Animal World (Article 24) and On Hunting, which were adopted on December 22, 2020, entered into force. However, this in no way changes the situation with rare and endangered species of animals: it is still prohibited to hunt them”, the Ministry of Natural Resources stressed.
For illegal hunting of polar bears in our country, criminal liability is provided under article 258.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The term of imprisonment is up to nine years, the fine is up to two million rubles.
You can find much information on polar bears on our site with the polar bear hashtag.
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Text: Angelica Stepanova, Photo: open sources