Barents Hot Spots Facility

NEFCO has a special mandate to work with environmental issues and projects in the Arctic and the Barents regions. One of the important financial tools for doing this is the Barents Hot Spots Facility (BHSF), which is managed by NEFCO on behalf of the Governments of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The purpose of the BHSF is to promote project development at the “hot spots” in the Russian Barents Region that were defined in a report by NEFCO in collaboration with the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) in 2003.

Eligible projects

Fundable causes contribute to the development of realistic projects related to the 42 “environmental hot spots” defined in the NEFCO/AMAP report, or to issues of a similar dignity in the Russian Barents Region. So far ca 40 projects or other specific measures have been approved for allocations from the BHSF. The nuclear safety sector is not included.

What the BHSF provides

The Facility’s main task is to provide grants to finance technical assistance, typically key pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, business and financing plans, or environmental impact assessments. BHSF is not as such a source of financing for actual project implementation, although from time to time the Facility may also allocate limited funds for implementation measures.

The assets of the BHSF amount to ca 3 MEUR.