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Consequences of called off ministers meeting worries eco-groups

Environmentalists are worried for the future of the bi-lateral Norwegian, Russian environmental cooperatin in the north. From the left: Vitaliy Servetnik with the Kola Ecological Centre, Kjersti Album with Naturvernforbundet / Friends of the Earth Norway, Andrey Zolotkov with Bellona Murmansk and Nils Bøhmer with the Bellona Foundation in Oslo.

MURMANSK: Ecological groups gathered on Kola Peninsula fear that Barents nature will be the looser after Oslo decided to call off the environmental minister’s Moscow meeting in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Location

“Sanctions in the sphere of military and economy is one issue, but environmental cooperation between peoples in the north should not suffer,” says Vitaliy Servetnik with Kola Ecological center.

The Norwegian, Russian borderland is far away from the crisis on Crimea. The north is, however, the first area to see consequences for the bi-lateral relations between the two countries. Yesterday, the Norwegian government decided to call off a planned visit to Moscow by Environmental Minister Tine Sundtoft. Cross-border pollution from Nikel in the Barents Region, a planned expansion of a Pasvik nature reserve and the current working conditions for environmental NGOs were among the topics on the minister’s agenda.

In Murmansk, both Norwegian and Russian environmental groups are worried that important unsolved ecological work now could risk less progress. 

“This is not good for the border relations between Norway and Russia. The ecological problems we have up here in the north will remain whether Crimea belongs to Ukraine or to Russia,” says Andrey Zolotkov, head of Bellona Murmansk, an organization that was just about to start celebration of its office’s 20 years anniversary in the Russian north when they became aware that Norway’s environmental minister cancels her Moscow tour.

Zolotkov’s Norwegian partner, Nils Bøhmer with the Bellona Foundation’s Oslo office says to BarentsObserver that it has been a long tradition to keep running the dialog with Russia on environmental related issues in the north, even in times of trouble. He points to the good joint cooperation on fisheries in the Barents Sea that Norway and Russia had throughout the coldest parts of the Cold War.

“Maybe other areas of contact with Russia should have been called off before the environmental dialog in the north,” says Nils Bøhmer.

Also Kjersti Album with Naturvernforbundet / Friends of the Earth Norway, is worried about the consequences for the environment.

“It is sad that important environmental cooperation stops, but we do understand the reaction from the Norwegian government,” says Kjersti Album. She has been working in close cooperation with Russian environmental organizations both in the Murmansk region and in St. Petersburg area for a decade and knows very well which challenges environmental NGOs have in today’s Russia.

The situation for the NGOs was one of the items on the list Norway’s Minister of Climate and Environment, Tine Sundtoft, was supposed to discuss with her Russian colleague next week.

Norway in 2013 spent NOK 28 million (€3.4 million) on environmental initiatives in Russia. Environmental talks are also a key area of the Barents cooperation that Norway, Russia, Finland and Sweden have had in the northernmost area of Europe over the last 21 years.