Green Belt of Fennoscandia (GBF) is a network of operating and planned protected areas along the borders between three countries: Finland, Russia, and Norway. Its lengthwise stretch is 1350 km. The idea of creating the GBF was put forward collectively by Russian and Finnish scientists in the first half of the 1990’s.

Interactions between the counterparts rest upon the Memorandum of Understanding between Finland, Russia and Norway on the development of the Green Belt of Fennoscandia, signed in 2010.

Cooperation under the Green Belt of Fennoscandia umbrella contributes to the implementation of the tasks set out in the international Convention on Biological Diversity. The common objectives of the trilateral cooperation between Finland, Russia and Norway have been defined in the Strategy for the Green Belt of Fennoscandia until 2020.

In 2018, implementing the public contract to research # NI-10-23/119 of 21.11.2017 “SCIENTIFIC SUBSTANTIATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIAN PART OF PROTECTED AREA NETWORK SHARED WITH NORWAY AND FINLAND” (ordered by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment), Karelian Research Centre RAS and Kola Science Centre RAS have worked to prepare the feasibility study for the trilateral international cooperation on the development of the network of protected areas (PA’s).