On 21 June, a working group of experts organised by the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution and WWF Russia to study the Kara Sea-Barents Sea polar bear population, met at the Severtsov Institute in Moscow to discuss their progress.

The experts shared the results of their studies and monitoring data and approved the group’s regulations and main objectives. They will focus on coordinating the work of research organisations in the Russian part of the Kara and Barents seas, promote international cooperation in a bid to accumulate more information about the polar bear living in the region, and will also cooperate with their Norwegian partners and oil companies.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences Permanent Expedition for the Study of Red Data Book Animals and Other Important Wildlife in Russia, the Severtsov Institute, WWF Russia, the National Research Institute of Environmental Protection (VNII Ecology) and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, as well as delegates from the specially protected areas in the Kara-Barents Sea region.