МурманшельфИнфо. 2009, N 1 (6).

Подходы к обеспечению экологической безопасности Баренцево-Карского региона при развитии морской нефтегазодобычи Approaches to ensuring environmental safety in the Barents-Kara region in the context of offshore oil and gas production Â. Â. ÄÅÍÈÑÎÂ, Ã. Â. ÈËÜÈÍ, Ìóðìàíñêèé ìîðñêîé áèîëîãè÷åñêèé èíñòèòóò ÊÍÖ ÐÀÍ, Ìóðìàíñê, Ðîññèÿ V. DENISOV, G.ILIN Murmansk Marine Biological Institute, Kola Science Centre of RAS, Murmansk, Russia Fishing and transport of general cargoes via the Northern Sea Route have traditionally been the most significant in economical and environmental termsmarine activities in the Barents-Kara region. Today there are new activities developing in the region, such as exploration and development of oil and gas fields, tanker transportation of hydrocarbons, processing of gas and condensate, mariculture, recreational activity, creation of nature conservation areas etc. At the same time the Barents Sea remains a very productive international bioresource water body. Nature conservation activities and creation of nature parks counterbalance other economic activities. Risks of adverse multi-factor impact on the marine environment and biota in case of Shtokman gas and condensate field development become real. This is referred not only to possible environment contamination with toxicants but also noise pollution, water pollution with suspension by bottom sediment detachment, thermal pollution. The consequence of the multi-user mode of territorial resource exploitation is the growing competition for the seabed space, shores, aquatic areas, and habitats. Today the problem of competition on the continental shelf of the Arctic basically remains a hypothetic one. In some years however this spatial competition is quite probable to become a reality forcing the managing authorities to choose optimal strategies of shelf resource exploitation. Accomplishment of this task will require complex advance assessment of economic interests, ranging of priorities and functional zoning of aquatic areas on the regional scale. Functional zoning assumes determination of prioritizedeconomic activities causingminimal damage to environment in definite parts of aquatic area. Harmonious or conflict interaction between different kinds of nature exploitation in one geographic area indicates their spatial compatibility. Degree of compatibility can be diverse: high, low or zero (incompatible). In the most cases criteria of compatibility are developed by interested parties in the course of working meetings and conformed to the legislation and sustainable environmental development models. Consolidated result of the analysis conducted is presentedinformofacompatibilitymatrixservingasabasis for managerial decisions on prevention or minimization of nature use conflicts and as a tool for zoning of aquatic areas. Such a matrix was developed by the authors in the process of analyzing environmental and socio-economic information on the Barents-Kara region. Diversification of natural resources’ use in the Barents-Kara region updates the task of functional zoning of the aquatic area in order to develop environmental and economic basis for the strategic plan of sustainable nature management in the region. Preliminary zoning indicates the southern part of the Barents Sea as the most competitive and vulnerable zone of the region. Here themanagement of economic activities will in the nearest future require compromise solutions from all the parties to the benefit of sustainable development of the European Arctic. ìàðò 2009 ¹ 1 (6) ÌóðìàíøåëüôÈíôî 17