The Interreg Nord project ”Tana River – Joint Environmental Management of the River Tana” was finished with successful and concrete results.
Anne Fløgstad Smeland, the Norwegian project coordinator from The County Governor of Troms and Finnmark believes the project been particularly fruitful because they have had concrete project outputs in a various of fields related to river management. The cross-border cooperation has enabled them to produce joint project outputs that sum up a totality across the border: a joint fish database, an overview of wastewater loadings and a joint report on fish migration barriers. These outputs are now available for further use in day-to-day management by local and regional authorities along the border area in Norway and Finland. The river Tana/Teno is a unique river in both Norway and Finland and it is of great importance to both countries and to the locals living along the river that there is a close co-management. The river has salmon stocks of international importance. The catchment area is large and large areas are without pressures from human activities. ”We need to cooperate in order to protect and manage these resources for future generations”, says Anne.
Jari Pasanen, ELY centre of Lapland, has been chairman of the projects Steering group. His opinion is that the project has benefited the border region by providing new information and developing new tools for joint environmental management. Transboundary cooperation is essential for improvement of the state of the environment in the Tana basin district.
The project has achieved good results. Ilona Grekelä, the Finnish project coordinator from ELY centre of Lapland particular wants to highlight the cooperation between Finnish and Norwegian border municipalities. It started from the Wastewater Monitoring Seminar in this project. The result is a follow up Interreg Nord project, Tana River II, in which various possibilities of a joint water supply are being studied for Karigasniemi in Finland and Kaarasjok in Norway. It is a good base for improving the efficiency of both municipalities in water supply. The new project started in June 2019.
