WWF demands U.S. halt polar bear hunt in Alaska

(RIA Novosti) - The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) is demanding the United States impose a moratorium on the hunting of polar bears, a report released on Monday by the international organization said.

The U.S. still allows polar bear hunting for indigenous peoples in Alaska even though polar bears have been listed as an endangered species since 2008.

"A bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Russia, which came into effect in 2007, obliges [the two countries] to reinforce the protection of the polar bear for future generations," the report reads.

The organization is seeking to save the polar bear population which inhabits Alaska and the neighboring Russian Chukotka Peninsula. Polar bear hunting has been banned in Russia since 1956.

The first Russian-American commission on polar bears will meet for the first time in Moscow September 23-25 to discuss ways of complying with the agreement between the two countries.

"We believe the commission should use all its efforts in order to introduce a moratorium on hunting polar bears in Alaska until there is evidence that the population has increased," the report quoted the head of the WWF in Russia, Viktor Nikiforov, as saying.

Ecologists believe that Russia also needs to toughen measures in its fight against the illegal hunting of polar bears.

Other factors are also leading to a decrease in the polar bear population, including melting ice in the Chukchi Sea, destroying the animal's main hunting ground, as well as poaching.

According to scientists, the polar bear population in the Arctic could decrease by 50-70% over the next 50 years if measures are not taken. Some 25,000 polar bears inhabit the Arctic.