4 Dec 2013

Arctic states to discuss polar bear protection

9:30 pm on 4 December 2013

Officials from the five Arctic states where polar bears live in the wild are beginning a three-day meeting in Moscow to discuss new measures to protect the species.

Conservationists are calling on the countries to tackle what they say are new threats to the animals' survival.

The talks come 40 years after Russia, Norway, Greenland, the United States and Canada signed an agreement to conserve polar bears and their Arctic habitat, the BBC reports.

Conservation groups say that deal helped to stop a decline in numbers, caused by uncontrolled hunting.

But they say new threats have emerged in the past four decades - notably the loss of Arctic sea ice where the bears hunt for food.

The conservationists hope the talks will produce a new agreement, including a commitment to address climate change and a ban on the international commercial trade in polar bear parts.