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Polar bear protection area

Polar bear. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Russia says the northern part of Novaya Zemlya will be a special protected area for Polar bears.

Location

The Russian Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya is one of the core areas of the common Svalbard – Franz Josef Land – Novaya Zemlya population of Polar bears, reports Rosbalt.

The Russian initiative to set up a national reservation area on the very northern part of Novaya Zemlya was presented at the on-going high-level meeting in Tromsø about the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears.

The purpose of the meeting will be to provide an update on the conservation status for the polar bear and to review implementation of the polar bear agreement, as previously reported by BarentsObserver.

Novaya Zemlya is infamously known for being the central archipelago for the Soviet Union’s nuclear testing. A total of 130 nuclear- and hydrogen bombs have been tested at the island. The last underground test was on October 24th 1991. Most of the island is still closed-off military area.