Blue Highway conference in Mo i Rana, Norway

During November, 18-19 a remote Norwegian community of Mo i Rana was receiving guests from cities and regions, united by the common concept of Blue Highway - a route, starting up north in skerries of the Norwegian sea and stretching via northern Sweden, central Finland over to the Russian Karelia. 

Scheme of the Blue Highway: 

Representatives of national sections of the Blue Highway association gathered in Mo i Rana for discussing further steps in developing this unique tourist route and destination. 

Construction of the new airport in Mo i Rana,  regional Plan of transportation, new railway connection - these are just few of the topics that were covered at the conference. 

Director of SKBIC Tatiana Klekacheva presented to the conference participants a new project idea "Blue Highway: a route towards development". 

On the general level, the project will contribute to supporting preservation of identity of the local population in Nordic countries and North-West Russia. Project purpose is to introduce instruments for motivating local population of the Blue Highway settlements to preserve and develop local social and cultural traditions.

Positive attitude was demonstrated towards participation in the ptoject from Norwegian and Swedish sections of the Blue Highway. Finnish participation still needs to be discussed. 

During November, 9-10 SKBIC took part in organization of the Seminar on Eco-Efficient Communities. Meetings of the Working group on Environment. 

The seminar was organized in the framework of Swedish chairmanship in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council and highlighted solutions for sustainable urban development, and the synergies with sustainable nature management, including the importance of environmental technologies and capacity building. 

Focus was given to current developments in Karelia and the potential of the Barents environmental cooperation, including the hot spot exclusion, cleaner production, energy efficiency and nature protection. 

Presentations were combined with participant interaction and discussions.

Invited: High-level representatives and key participants from the Republic of Karelia, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council Working Group on Environment, the Subgroup on Hot Spot Exclusion, the Subgroup on Nature Protection, the Subgroup on Cleaner Production and Sustainable Consumption, NEFCO, other interested from the Barents cooperation, invited organisations and other stakeholders from Karelia.


Media coverage: 
http://petrozavodsk.rfn.ru/rnews.html?id=1483407 (video of the local news channel)
http://www.stolica.onego.ru/news/2010-11-09.html (online media)

Chair of the BEAC WG on nature protection
Ms. Ida Reutersward opening the seminar

Minister of Economic Development of Karelia
Mr. Valentin Luntsevich

Participants from Västerbotten county

Informal discussions during the seminar breaks

Participants of the working session Karelia-Västerbotten:
prospects of cooperation.