Russia's ban on polar bear hunting...U.S. planning to ban commercial trade of polar bears

I completely missed this in the news, when it happened....but since I missed it, maybe you did too!   According www.care2.com and the Russian Geographical Society's Research Program on the Polar Bear Inhabiting the Russian Arctic, Russia had completely banned polar bear hunting in 2011.  Way to go Russia. It gets better!  Apparently, appreciation for the polar bear goes all the way to the top.  It turns out that Vladimir Putin is an advocate for the preservation of endangered animals.  The picture below shows him assisting researchers by tagging a polar bear.

For now the ban has been partially lifted to allow for subsistence hunting for poor villagers in Chukotka located in the region across the Bering Strait from Alaska, but the focus and efforts taken by Russia to protect the polar bear are commendable. 

Now the U.S. is catching up with it's on stand on the ban of commercial trade of polar bears.  This shift if policy is slated to be announced at the Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species (CITES) in March (Learn more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CITEShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CITES).  Doing this could move the polar bear from Appendix II to Appendix I.  This means that polar bears would move from a list of approximately 21,000 species that may be extinct to the list of 1,200 that are unquestionably threatened with extinction.  This designation could significantly help with efforts to protect the polar bear. 

http://www.care2.com/causes/russia-cancels-annual-polar-bear-hunt.html

http://int.rgo.ru/grants/research-program-on-the-polar-bear-inhabiting-the-russian-arctic/

This news is helps to address one of the four major threats to polar bears today -- Overharvesting. Perhaps this news also provides partial answers to questions 1 and 2 in the blog post below. Join the conversation.  Let's be part of the solution.