Thursday 15 May 2008

"This decision is a tremendous victory for one of the world's most iconic and charismatic animals," said president and CEO of WWF-US, Carter Roberts. "But while we applaud this announcement, many concerns remain."

Growing danger
With Arctic sea ice already at record low levels last summer, some scientists have predicted that summer sea ice could be gone entirely as early as 2013. This is a major threat to polar bears, whose hunting grounds are on the sea ice.

Another threat to the polar bear's habitat comes from oil and gas exploration. The US government agency, the US Minerals Management Service (MMS), auctioned off almost 30 million acres of prime polar bear habitat in Alaska's Chukchi Sea for exploration in February this year.

WWF is part of a coalition of Alaska native and conservation organizations that has filed a lawsuit in the federal district court in Alaska, arguing that MMS did not adequately consider the impacts of oil and gas activities on indigenous communities and wildlife along Alaska's North Slope region.

"We should be taking every action possible to reduce stresses on polar bears, and we believe that oil and gas activities pose formidable risks to the Arctic sea ice ecosystem and the polar bears that inhabit it," said coordinator of WWF's Polar Bear Conservation Program, Geoffrey York.