At the end of March 2026, the international forum “The Universe of the Polar Bear” was held in St. Petersburg. It combined a series of specialized scientific and practical events aimed at the harmonious development of the Arctic with an emphasis on the conservation of the polar predator and ecosystems of the north.
Polar bears. Photo: IA “Chukotka”
Polar bears in the spotlight
The event was organized by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Government of the Chukotka Region. It was held as part of the St. Petersburg Big City Ecology Forum. Alexander Kozlov, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology, noted the uniqueness of the site, and Dmitry Kobylkin, a representative of the State Duma, clarified that the key topic of the forum was events on the organization of accounting for the number and monitoring of polar bears.
“The first conference dedicated to the polar bear was held in Chukotka nine years ago. And I am very pleased that the regional initiative has turned into an international discussion platform that brings together scientists, environmentalists, government and business representatives from different regions of Russia and many countries around the world,” said Vladislav Kuznetsov, Governor of the Chukotka Autonomous District.
First Deputy Konstantin Tsyganov, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology, spoke about the results of the count of the polar predator in the Russian Arctic. Four subpopulations of the polar bear live here: Barents Sea, Kara, Laptev and Chukchi-Alaska. According to expert estimates, their total number is about 6 thousand individuals.
“We are currently working on ecomonitoring technology using drones and neural networks. We have created a multi-object neural network platform “Arctic 2″ for aviation monitoring. It automatically processes monitoring data, detecting polar bears, seals and anthropogenic pollution,” said the deputy. Governor of Chukotka Alexander Savchenko.
And what was known before?
The number of polar bears in the Russian Arctic remains stable and amounts to about 6-7 thousand individuals. This was reported to TASS earlier this year by Viktor Nikiforov, Director of Nature Conservation at the Conservation of Ecological Systems of the Far East and Siberia Charitable Foundation.
“Russia is home to about 6-7 thousand polar bears, or a quarter of the world’s population. Why approximately – a full accounting has never been carried out, it is expensive and technically difficult. For example, Russia has a coastline of several thousand kilometers in the Arctic zone. Therefore, the population data is mainly reported by federal specially protected natural territories – the Wrangel Island, Bear Islands, and the Russian Arctic National Park,” Nikiforov said.
At the same time, over the past 10 years, there is no information that the population is growing or falling. “For Russia and probably for the whole world, the pandemic period has given some respite to human activity in the Arctic. The current political and economic situation indicates the active development of the Northern Sea Route, which, of course, will have an impact on the polar bear,” the expert concluded.
“The International Union for Conservation of Nature gives estimates of the number, and experts adjust this number all the time: it is estimated that it ranges from 22 to 25 thousand for the entire polar bear population. The Russian part of this population is estimated at a third – about 7-7.5 thousand individuals,” said an employee of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution earlier this year. Severtseva Ilya Mordvintsev. In general, no one knows the exact number of polar bears.
The polar bear is listed on the International Red List as Vulnerable, as well as in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. Scientists predict that within three generations, its population may decrease by a third. The species is one of the 17 priority species of the national Environmental Well-being project. A strategy has been developed to preserve it and federal funding has been allocated to protect and restore its numbers.
