Russia is taking steps to preserve a habitat for polar bears, although it’s hardly prime real estate:

Russia’s Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya was by a governmental decree on Monday transformed into a nature reserve. A total of 132 nuclear bombs were detonated at the islands from 1955 to 1990.
The new nature reserve will be one of the largest in the world and by far the largest protected area in the Arctic Ocean, covering more than 80,000 square kilometres. From the south to the north the two islands at Novaya Zemlya is 900 kilometres long. Most of the northern island consists of peak mountains and glaciers. The creation of the nature reserve has been planned for a long time and the decree on establishing it was signed by Prime Minister Valdimir Putin on Monday, reports RIA Novosti.
Commenting the nature reserve Putin said this is a “unique space with high biodiversity and high bioproductivity.”
According to WWF-Russia, the nature reserve could compensate for the damage to the dwindling polar bear population from global warming. Some studies say two thirds of the world’s 25,000 polar bears could die by 2050, as the ice they use to hunt seals melts due to global warming.