Regional Working Group on Environment (RWGE)
The Regional Working Group on Environment was established by the Barents Regional Council in 1993. After a reconstruction of the working groups under the Regional Council, the RWGE was re-established during the spring of 2001 as one of five regional working groups. The 13 member regions in the Barents Region have representatives in the RWGE. The chairmanship from region to region is changing once in two years. For the period 2007-2008 the Chairmanship is carried out by the Komi Republic (Russia).
The mandate of the RWGE is to work as a consultative body on environmental issues to the Working Group of Environment (WGE). There is close co-operation between the RWGE and the WGE. The WGE may also submit suggestions and give mandates to the RWGE on implementation of special projects. The RWGE and WGE may initiate environmental projects within the Barents Region. A yearly work plan is presented by RWGE to the Regional Council and WGE, as well as an annual progress report. The Regional Committee of the BEAC was a Steering Group for the Barents 2010 project and gave a mandate to RWGE to study biodiversity and water issues. Once in two years the Chair of the RWGE is reporting to the Ministers of the Environment of Russia, Norway, Sweden and Finland on the Ministerial Conference about the results of the RWGE’s activity during last two years.
The RWGE from time to time updates the Action Program and identifies a few project ideas that will be given priority in the work of the RWGE. A revision of the present Action Program has been undertaken and main focus for further work will be on two major area; water quality and biodiversity in the Barents Region. An analysis of the present environmental situation in the Barents Region has been introduced at the Ministerial meeting in Moscow (November 9, 2007) and the results will form the base for a strategic plan on improvement of the environment in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region.
An initiative has been taken by the RWGE on linking nature conservation and tourism in the Barents Region. The BEAC Environment Ministers welcomed at their meeting in Luleå on 28 August 2003 the work on developing an eco-tourism quality certification system adopted to the Barents Region by e.g. combining the results from the UN eco-tourism conference held in Hemavan in 2002 with national and international eco-tourism labeling schemes, such as «Nature’s Best».
Efforts to improve the environmental situation in the area around the Pechenganikel industrial complex are also addressed in the framework of the RWGE. The Pechenganikel industrial complex is a main threat to aquatic and terrestrial environments in the Finnish, Norwegian, and Russian border areas. Regional authorities in the counties of Finnmark, Lapland, and Murmansk have in collaboration with research institutes in the Barents Region completed a «Pasvik program». The objective of the «Pasvik program » was to develop and implement an environmental monitoring and assessment program in the border areas. Nineteen institutions in the Barents Region have participated in the program. The long term objective of the project is to ensure that the monitoring data covering the state of the environment are reliable, comparable, and available to authorities, environmental experts and local people in the border areas.
For more information see:
Documents
Members
Mattias Lindgren, Norrbotten, Chair
Phone: +46 920 963 34
Mobile: +46 70 614 63 34
Fax: +46 920 22 84 11
E-mail:
mattias.lindgren@lansstyrelsen.se
Address: County Administration of Norrbotten, 971 86 Luleå, Sweden
Bente Christiansen, Finnmark
Phone: +47 78 95 03 73
Fax: +47 78 95 03 70
E-mail:
bch@fmfi.no
Address. County Governor in Finnmark, Statens hus, 9815 Vadsø, Norway
Matti Hepola, Lapland
Phone: +358 20 490 6700, mobile: +358 40 746 3521
Fax : +358 16 345 991
E-mail:
matti.hepola@ymparisto.fi
Address: Lapland Regional Environment Centre, P.O. Box 8060, 96100 Rovaniemi, Finland
Jari Pasanen, Lapland
Phone: +358 16 329 47 11, mobile: +358 40 518 7484
Fax : +358 16 345 991
E-mail:
jari.pasanen@ymparisto.fi
Address: Lapland Regional Environment Centre, P.O. Box 8060, 96100 Rovaniemi, Finland
Eija Salmi, North Ostrobotnia
Phone: +358 8 3214 022, mobile +358 50 3217899
Fax: +358 8 3214 055
E-mail:
eija.salmi@pohjois-pohjanmaa.fi
Address: Regional Council of Oulu, Kauppurienkatu 8 A, 90100 Oulu, Finland
Heikki Aronpää, North Ostrobotnia
Phone: +358 20 490 6300, mobile +358 40 555 2866
Fax : +358 20 490 6305
E-mail:
heikki.aronpaa@ymparisto.fi
Address: North Ostrobotnia Regional Environment Centre, P.O. Box 124, 90101 Oulu, Finland
Tero Väisänen, North Ostrobotnia
Phone: +358 8 3158521
Fax : +358 8 3158530
E-mail:
tero.vaisanen@ymparisto.fi
Address: North Ostrobotnia Regional Environment Centre, P.O. Box 124, 90101 Oulu, Finland
Unto Ritvanen, Kainuu
Phone: +358 8 61631
Fax : +358 8 6163629
E-mail:
unto.ritvanen@ymparisto.fi
Address: Kainuu Regional Environment Centre, P.O. Box 115, 87101 Kajaani, Finland
Mats-Rune Bergström,Västerbotten
Phone: + 46 90 10 73 52, mobil: +46 70 621 73 52
Fax : +46 90 10 72 00
E-mail:
mats-rune.bergstrom@ac.lst.se
Address: County Administration of Västerbotten, 901 86 Umeå, Sweden
Asbjørg Fyhn, Troms
Phone: +47 77 78 81 65
Fax: +47 77 78 80 01
E-mail:
asbjorg.fyhn@tromsfylke.no
Address. Troms fylkeskommune, P.O.Box 6600, 9296 Tromsø, Norway
Roar Høgsæt, Nordland
Phone: +47 75 53 15 62
Fax: +47 75 53 16 80
E-mail:
rho@fmno.no
Address: County Governor in Nordland, Moloveien 10, 8002 Bodø, Norway
Andrey Smirnov, Murmansk
Phone: +78152 48 63 87
Fax: +78152 48 63 33
E-mail:
Ivan Pavlovich Shabalin, Arkhangelsk
Head of Agency of Natural Resources and Environment in the Arkhangelsk Region
49 Trotsky Pr., 163000, Arkhangelsk, Russia
Tlf: +7 8182 21 55 19
Fax: +7 8182 28 57 48
E-mail:
eco@dvinaland.ru
Tatiana Tiupenko, Komi
Phone: +7 8212 216 098
Mobile: +8 912 86 97 497
Fax : +7 8212 44 13 90
E-mail:
tiupenko@rkomi.ru
Address: Ministry of Natural Resurces and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Komi, Internationalnaya st. 157, 167000 Syktyvkar, Russia
Nobody represents Kareliya
Phone: +7 8142
Fax: +7 8142
E-mail:
Nobody represents Nenets Autonomous Okrug
Phone: +7 81853
Fax: +7 81853
E-mail:
Address: Naryan-Mar, Russia