Current

Environment continues to be a high priority for the Barents cooperation. Foreign Ministers of the four Barents countries - Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden - emphasized it during the annual International Kirkenes Conference held on 17 February this year. “Environmental issues are high on the agenda of Barents cooperation. We have seen many success stories so far in the field of reducing pollution” says Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto.

Finnish Environment Institute SYKE is starting more than ten new EU projects this year. The projects tackle a wide range of questions, including ecosystem accounting, microplastics in agricultural land and cyanobacteria monitoring using satellite observation. The projects represent well SYKE’s versatile research into a wide range of environmental issues.