The Barents Euro-Arctic Region / Barents region

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The Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Europe’s largest region for interregional cooperation, includes the northernmost parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Northwest Russia. The nature is unique and the environment vulnerable, with wide tundra areas in the north and extensive boreal forests zones in the south. The wealth and diversity of natural resources, e.g., biotopes, forests, fish, minerals, diamonds, oil and gas, poses great opportunities and challenges.

This is a vast region with approximately 5.23 million people; it is an area as large as Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France (mainland) and Spain (mainland) together, totalling 1,75 million km2, of which 75% of the territory and population is Russian. Several indigenous peoples and minority groups live in the region, e.g., the Sami, Nenets,Vepsians and Komi.

The majority of the Barents Region belongs to the temperate conifer zone whereas the Scandinavian mountain chain, the northern parts of the Kola Peninsula, the Nenets Area and Novaja Zemlja are part of the Arctic tundra. The location mainly north of the Arctic Circle gives a period of exotic midnight sun and also long and dark polar nights.
http://www.barentsinfo.org/Barents-region

The co-operation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region was launced in 1993 in Kirkenes, Norway. The region consists of fourteen counties or similar subregional entities in Norway, Russia, Finland and Sweden.

The Barents Cooperation promotes people-to-people contacts and economic development and creates good condtions for interregional exchange in many different fields; e.g., culture, indigenous peoples, education, youth, trade, information, environment, helath and transport. The Barents Cooperation is regarded as an intergral part of creating a stable, democratic and prosperous Europe.

In the spirit of the Northern Dimention, the Barents Euro-Arctic Region is, in its cultural diversity, a gateway to opportunities for researchers, entrepreneurs, pioneers and discoverers. In the 21st Century, the Northern Sea Route and the shortcuts to Asia still remains a challenge and a vision for Europe and the Barents Cooperation.

About 5.5 million people live in the Barents Region. The population density is on average a mere 3,5 inhabitants per square kilometre. This varies from 0,3 (Nenets) to 8 (Oulu) inhabitants. The largest city in the Barens Region is Arkhangelsk (Russia) with its 350.000 inhabitans.

The majority of the Barents Region belongs to the temperate conifer zone wheras the Scandinavian mountain chain, the northern parts of the Kola Peninsula, the Nenets Area and Novaja Zemlja are part of the Arctic tundra. The location mainly north of the Arctic Circle gives a period of exotic midnight sun and also long and dark polar nights.

The surface area of the Barents Region is 1.755.800 sq.km. This Euro-Arctic region is also characterised by its harsh climate and long distances. But no other part of Europe and indeed few places on earth are equally rich in forests, fish, minerals, oil and gas. Besides such natural resources the Barents Euro-Arctic Region has a skilled labour force and constitutes a meeting point between the European Union and Russia.

The Barents Euro-Arctic Region includes the following 14 territories which also are members of the Barents Regional Council:

Norway: Finnmark, Troms and Nordland
Russia: Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Nenets, Komi and Karelia
Finland: Lappland, Oulu, Northern Karelia and Kainuu
Sweden: Norbotten and Västerbotten

History of the Barents Euro-Arctic Cooperation
The Barents Euro-Arctic Cooperation and the intergovenmental cooperation in the region was formalised when the Foreign Ministers of Norway, Russia, Finland, Sweden and representatives of Denmark, Iceland and the European Commission signed the Kirkenes Declaration on 11 January 1993.

The Council was established as a forum to promote interregional contacts in the northernmost parts of Norway, Russia, Finland and Sweden. On the same occasion, representatives of the member regions, governors and their equivalents, together with representatives of the indigenous peoples, signed a protocol of cooperation that established the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, with the objective of working together to promote the development of the Barents Region.

Aim and Vision
Today, as decentralisation and regionalization progress in most European countries, initiatives are taken to strengthen or create new regional structures. The expectations of this process are to bring political and administrative structures closer to the citizens and to improve the democratic functions of siciety.

Much has been achieved over ten years of Barents Cooperation. This is a unique undertaking that confirms the value of close interation between intergovernmental, interregional and people-to-people cooperation. It is also an important framework for strengthening and developing the Northern Dimension of EU policies and interaction with Canada, Japan and the United States and other Arctic regions in the far north of Europe.

The vision of the Barents Cooperation is to improve living conditions, to encourage sustainable economic and social development and thus contribute to stability, environmental progress and peaceful development in northernmost Europe. These aims can only be reached through continuous, multifaceted efforts in a broad range of areas, spanning from overall security, environmental concern and economic development to the human dimension.

https://barents.no/en/about-us/barents-region






http://www.barentscooperation.org/ The Barents Euro-Arctic Council's official web-site.
The Barents Euro-Arctic Council's official web-site. The Norwegian Barents Secretariat's official web-site.
http://www.barentsinfo.org/ (Finnish, Norwegian, Russian and Swedish cooperative project to build a portal for the Barents region.)
https://www.facebook.com/BarentsCooperation/ Facebook

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Here's maps from the website of the Barents Protected Area Network (http://www.bpan.fi/en/gallery/maps/).

In the map below, you can see that in both the Republic of Karelia and the Archangelsk Oblast, the regions surrounding the White Sea are full of wetlands. In Komi Republic, the wetland regions are mostly along rivers. The agricultural areas in Komi Republic are mostly concentrated along the Vychegda and Sysola rivers near Syktyvkar. Similarly, in Archangelsk Oblast, the agricultural areas are concentrated along the Northern Dvina and Vychegda rivers.



Based on the borders of the map below, the Republic of Karelia is entirely part of the boreal zone, and even the southernmost parts of Archangelsk Oblast and Komi Republic are part of the boreal zone.

In Archangelsk Oblast and Komi Republic, the border between the middle boreal and southern boreal zone runs north of the Vychegda River.

The only truly arctic (not hypoarctic) regions are Vaygach Island and Novaya Zemlya.



Elevation map:



Road and railroad network:

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Indigenous Peoples of the Barents Euro-Arctic Region

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Arctic change and reindeer husbandry in the Barents region

Environmental and social changes in Saami and Nenets reindeer husbandry are sweeping the Barents region and more are expected. The biggest driver of change, write SVEIN D. MATHIESEN and MIKHAIL POGODAEV, is infrastructure development on lands used by reindeer herders in Sweden, Norway, Finland and some parts of Russia.

Climate change is another increasing threat to traditional livelihoods with global and regional scenarios projecting changes in temperature, precipitation and snow conditions in important reindeer pastures.



The impacts of these changes on indigenous peoples are exacerbated because they don’t have a voice in the development of adaptation tools and strategies for planning and development. Therefore, reindeer husbandry must develop adaptation strategies that recognize the value of traditional knowledge in the management of reindeer husbandry while at the same time using the best practices developed from science.

Adaptation to changes in reindeer herding will require future Arctic leaders to be knowledgeable and aware of long-term sustainability for reindeer husbandry. This must be the basis for building socio-ecological resilience against the rapid changes in Arctic ecosystems. We need new methods and delivery of education in reindeer herding communities that are multidisciplinary, multicultural and holistic approaches for sustainable development and which include traditional and gender knowledge. Meaningful collaboration between traditional knowledge and science is key to creating successful adaptation strategies.

Contributing to the erosion of resilience in herding communities is the explosion of research which fails to involve indigenous peoples’ institutions and organizations, and can be seen as a new kind of knowledge extracting industry. In future, the University of the Arctic could play a new role in bridging knowledge systems by increasing cooperation between academia and indigenous institutions, networks and organizations.

There is a need to further develop multidisciplinary indigenous transboundary institutions to meet the effect of these changes. Knowledge held by reindeer herders is key to their future economic sustainability. With a changing climate and increased industrial development, reindeer husbandry’s ability to adapt will decline if their own traditional knowledge about pastures, environment and reindeer is not used.

We are heading toward a tipping point for some communities and we need to rigorously examine the protection and sustainable management of critical natural resources for the practice of traditional livelihoods. The complexity of the threats to reindeer husbandry and their far-reaching consequences demand impact assessments that evolve into more holistic and long-term, social-ecological resilience assessments examining the complex systems of how people and nature persist, adapt and transform in the face of Arctic change.

All levels of government need to make a strong commitment to the survival of Indigenous languages. Language loss has a direct correlation to the loss of practical skills, coping, and ultimately, biodiversity itself. Finally, it is important to engage youth in practical reindeer husbandry and strengthen the training of local leaders in long-term sustainable thinking.

SVEIN D. MATHIESEN works at the International Reindeer Husbandry Center, Kautokeino, Norway heading the University of the Arctic Institute for Circumpolar Reindeer Husbandry.

MIKHAIL POGODAEV is Chair of the World Reindeer Herders Association, which unites 24 indigenous reindeer herding peoples across the circumpolar north. He is also President of the UArctic EALAT Institute for Circumpolar Reindeer Husbandry.

http://arctic.blogs.panda.org/the-ci...arents-region/