Modified: 15.12.2008
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Ecogeochemical Mapping of Eastern
Barents Region 1999-2003
Cooperation Project between Finland, Russia and Norway
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The project area is likely to be the focus of increased human activity in the near future, linked to the further exploitation of natural resources such as the large hydrocarbon fields on land in the Timan-Pechora basin and the gigantic gas fields offshore, in the eastern Barents Sea. Development of such fields will, in all probability, necessitate building new pipelines on land, new port facilities, possibly near the mouth of the Pechora River, and many offshore installations. These developments will, to a significant extent, take place in areas that have already experienced a human impact of various kinds (from earlier oil/gas and coal exploitation and other sources).
A geochemical baseline study in the region will give the authorities and other involved interests a basis for assessing the existing state of the environment and for distinguishing impacts due to new developments from those of an older date. Comparing results of ecogeochemical mapping of the land areas with existing data from the sea shelf territory will allow an estimation of the influence of human activities on the continent on the sea shelf sediments. Thus the environmental status of the whole region can be documented before the planned exploitation of new large oil and gas deposites. The study can also function as a vehicle for developing the institutions participating in and responsible for the project.