The need for conservation / protection

• Cold environments are fragile areas that need to be sustainably managed in order to be protected.
• • Large parts of them are wilderness – they are undeveloped, uninhabited and undisturbed.
• • Scientists can study plants and animals that are unaffected – providing valuable knowledge about fragile ecosystems
• • They can take 100s of years to return to their original state because plant growth is slow and species are highly specialised – find it difficult to change (e.g. polar bears hunt on ice, their numbers are decreasing as the sea ice melts earlier each year)
• • They provide fishing opportunities
• • They attract tourists who spend money who bring benefits to countries such as Norway