Despite environmental activist groups criticizing President Barack Obama’s seemingly indifferent attitude towards endangered species, the administration was able to pull off around 187,999 square miles along Alaska’s northern coast as protected habitat for polar bears. The move comes right after partial settlement made between the Department of Interior and the group of environmental agencies consisting of the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace. The total land area is around 13,000 square miles less than what was previously planned in an initial proposal made in 2009.
Interior Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland explains that the protected area will serve to assist polar bears combat extinction. The specie is being threatened to be wiped out of existence primarily because of the worsening climate conditions that are causing the melting of polar ice caps. The area is to be designated as critical habitat for polar bears, and will also enable the Department of Interior to work closely with fellow federal agencies to make sure current and future government projects will do no harm to the remaining polar bear populations.
While designating an area as critical habitat will not effect restrictions against economic activities for development, it will impose rules requiring federal officials to base their initiatives on whether there would be harm done to polar bears. 95 percent of the critical habitat covers sea ice over at the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off northern Alaska. Those areas serve as prime hunting and breeding grounds for polar bears as they travel continuously for their survival.