Fennoscandia and the Baltic

The History

In Scandinavia, the Finnish-Russian and the Norwegian-Russian borders did not originally fall under the definition of the Iron Curtain. However, the border was very strictly guarded and it still is, even when economic cooperation has become more intense in the recent years. The border to Russia now serves as an external border of the EU, and a basis for cooperation on the local level, especially between protected areas' management authorities, is most important for nature conservation.

The Baltic States have always been conjoined by their mutual access to the Baltic Sea. But for years transboundary cooperation was almost non-existant. The coastal areas had in large sections been forbidden zones, used by the military as airfields, missile bases and training sites. The coastal zone was in large parts unreversably damaged by nuclear testing and nuclear waste deposition.

The Baltic States widely agreed that, apart from the transboundary areas, the north european section of the Green Belt will includes the coastal zones along the Baltic Sea. Today, some of the sites stand under a high pressure for economic development and settlement.

The Heritage

The Fennoscandian and Baltic States Green Belt includes some of the last remaining old-growth boreal forests, harbouring about 50 percent of the endangered forest species in the area. It is mainly due to the Cold War and the consequent low economic activities, that this area remains in a nearly pristine state.

The main biodiversity values of the Fennoscandian and Baltic Green Belt are:

• the western margin of east Eurasian taiga
• all boreal zone subzones from South to North
• outstanding climax Scots Pine stands
• significant biodiversity values linked to wetlands
• the coastal zone

The plant and animal world is unique due to the presence of endemic animal species such as taiga reindeer, grey wolf, brown bear, wolverine, ringed seal, land-locked salmon. It is also very important concerning the availability of key habitats of migrating birds and preservation of many rare and endangered plant species.

The Challenge

Land abandonment along the coastal zones leads to a loss of the semi-natural habitats and therefore to declining biodiversity and a loss of cultural landscape value. New suburban settlements, development initiatives of private landowners – some of them illegaly built in protected areas – threaten the coastal zone from the land side. A lack of appropriate infrastructure for visitors and leads to a recreation and tourism flow concentration, that is harmful to some sites that now stand under a high pressure for economic development and settlement.

From the sea side there is the threat of shipping – oil transit, oil terminals, oil platforms as well as an increasing number of seaports.

Since the end of the Cold War, ongoing extensive logging is threatening the forest belt, where a series of protected areas has already been established. If no implemented protection is put in place, more than half of the unique natural areas forming the Green Belt are likely to be destroyed or degraded.

The Effort

The idea of preparing the Green Belt of Fennoscandia as a transboundary nomination appeared in 1995 and has been first widely discussed at the International Russian-Finnish meeting in the Ministry of Ecology of the Russian Federation in autumn 1995. The idea got a wide response, so that from 1995 to 1998 many conferences and work meetings were held with participants of Russian, Finnish, Norwegian and German governmental and non-governmental environmental bodies. The largest conferences were held at Petrozavodsk and Murmansk (Russia), Kuhmo (Finland) and the Island of Vilm (Germany). The project had been repeatedly discussed with the respective authorities.

In 2006 the cooperation for the Green Belt initiative has been renewed on the First Regional Meeting of the Fennoscandian and Baltic States Green Belt. Representatives from seven countries came together to discuss focal areas for nature conservation and regional development activites.