“Russia and Norway could create a joint tourism cluster in Svalbard. If we can do this, then we will be able to extrapolate the experience to other regions,” said Sergey Nikonorov, an expert on sustainable development of the Arctic Development Project Office, at the media congress of the Barents region on 25 June.
The event took place within the framework of the International Forum «Russian Chairmanship of the Arctic Council - Environmental Agenda for the Country and the World», timed to coincide with the beginning of Russia's chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021-2023. Experts from the Barents Region discussed international cooperation and the media landscape in the Arctic.
According to Sergei Nikonorov, the issues of Arctic development require joint action by various states, and the creation of a tourism cluster in Svalbard could be a good example of interaction.
Nikonorov spoke about the Polar Index ratings of sustainable development of provinces and companies in the Barents Region, which are underway with the support of the Arctic Development Project Office and assess regions and companies operating in the Arctic from the point of view of the concept of sustainable development.
“Ratings are a tool for finding best practices and scaling them, developing roadmaps for the development of regions,” says the PORA expert. “Negative information immediately finds an audience. It is much more difficult to get people interested in positive news about cooperation,” he said.
Maria Zakharova, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, made a welcoming speech at the media forum.
Within the framework of the media congress, many representatives of the Barents region spoke about "distortions" on the media map of the Arctic, both intentional and spontaneous.
It is necessary to finance projects that help cross-border movement, because the Arctic regions are difficult to get to, and many topics look completely different in theory and on the ground, says Danish journalist and writer Martin Breum.
The event was also attended by: Tim Anderson, Chairman of the non-governmental organization "Barents Press" (Sweden); Silje Karine Muotka, Counselor of the Sami Parliament of Norway (Norway); Lars Kullerud, President of the University of the Arctic (Norway); Vasily Borisov, editor-in-chief of the information agency Barents News (Russia); Olga Khodinova, producer of international programs of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (Russia) and other experts.
Blogs
