Yhteenveto. - Sammanfattning. - Kokkuvõte. - Rezûme.

Ecosystem services in the Nordic countries entail a high potential with regard to regional growth and job creation. The report Unlocking regional potentials describes recent policy actions taken by the Nordic countries regarding natural and cultural heritage as a valuable resource in sustainable regional development. In addition, the report introduces examples of European and Nordic research and development activities concerning valuation of natural and cultural heritage. Nordic experiences underline the need to apply a broad view on regional development including the importance of natural and cultural heritage to human health, well-being, social inclusion and local identity. There is also a need to develop regional platforms for interaction between different interest groups, and to carry out further analyses of regional assets with regard to natural and cultural heritage.

First published in 1999, this volume features 13 contributors with expertise in social science and environmental research who have brought together comparative 12 articles which study the connection between humanity and nature, focusing on comparisons between the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. They are among the most homogeneous and hence most comparable societies in Europe. The articles reflect the need for environmental and political change recognised by social scientists and political scientists across the Nordic countries, with an emphasis on ecological modernisation. They first consider conceptions of the environment, before comparing both between and within these countries. The traditions and institutions presented in the volume reflect the comprehensiveness of the approaches used within the field in the Nordic countries.

The protection of transborder areas in an ecological network system which take account of clusters of conservation areas represents an important step towards protecting natural heritage in Europe. Cross-border co-operation can help provide larger protected areas with uniform management and thus make a considerable contribution to the conservation of biodiversity. This report reflects the transborder co-operation in countries of central and eastern Europe, including Russia, the Baltic countries, Belarus and Ukraine.

Thorvald Stoltenberg Ambassador Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board A.5 the second volume of the this yearbook goes to press, Europe faces new and to some degree unexpected dangers of political and ideological division. It is a frightening realisation that not even ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Empire and the democratisation and economic transformation of most of the old Soviet-dominated Central and Eastern Europe, fissures have appeared that threaten to undo some of what has been accomplished in terms of East-West rapprochement. The immediate crisis over Kosovo may well have been resolved by the time this is being read. However, it is hard to escape a foreboding that some of the mutual ill will between Russia and the Western powers that has surfaced in the wake of that conflict may linger for years to come. It is therefore imperative that Russia and the Western powers sit down to discuss what can be done to avoid similar conflicts in the future and how to overcome mutual recriminations so that they do not harden into new political front lines between East and West in Europe. The recent developments make the promotion of integration in the NEBI area even more urgent. So far this process has been based on two equally impor tant platforms: economic integration and political integration, including mea sures to dismantle old conflict potentials.