Barents Rescue 2019

Barents Rescue 2019

This page contains links to documents, presentations and information material related to the Barents Rescue 2019 (BR-19) exercise, which took place in the Kiruna area in Norrbotten, Sweden in September 2019.

News update, April 2020:

The Barents Euro-Arctic Region is one of the worlds’ most vulnerable regions in terms of environment degradation and climate change impacts. The region is characterized by its harsh climate, large natural resources, long distances, rural areas and limited rescue personnel and equipment. As the region is becoming more accessible for activities on land and sea, the risk patterns in the region is changing. In the light of these challenges the Barents Cooperation and joint exercises becomes increasingly important in the future to ensure the living conditions of the people in the region.

The Exercise Concept developed for Barents Rescue 2019 provides a good basis for future Barents exercises to build on. Exercise participants had the opportunity to take part in different activities to increase learning, exchange of joint working methods and current knowledge and research related to exercised core capabilities while networking with different countries, sectors and actors.
The result of the evaluation assess the exercise objectives and pinpoints lessons identified and recommendations. Lessons identified in the exercise are largely reoccurring in previous evaluations of Barents Rescue Exercises (2013, 2015 and 2017). A main conclusion is that the collaboration should focus on preventing the same shortcomings from being repeated in upcoming exercises or rescue operations. It is through working jointly to take stock of previous lessons identified from emergencies and exercises that the joint capability in the region can strengthen and develop to allow for a well-coordinated collaboration in case of a complex emergency.

The international report from Barents Rescue 2019 has been finalized and can be downloaded from this link

The biennial Barents Rescue is a multi-lateral crisis management exercise under the framework of the Barents cooperation. During the exercise, national, regional and local actors focus on the handling of natural disasters, major accidents and others emergencies in the Barents region. The main organizer for the exercise in 2019 is the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Myndigheten för Samhällsskydd och Beredskap/MSB). The MSB infopage for BR-19 can be found via this link >>

Final Planning Conference, Kiruna, May 2019

Presentations from the Seminars Programme:

Seminars Programme, overview
Why Nødnett - Rakel - Virve are connected, presentation by Jarmo Vinqvist, Erillisverkkot
Climate changes in the Barents region, presentation by Gustav Strandberg, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
How does climate change affect the Sami culture, presentation by Anne Walkeapää, The Sami Parliament
Barents Cooperation 26 years - an overview, presentation by Tomas Hallberg, International Barents Secretariat
HNS and rescue operations under cold conditions, presentation by Hannu Rantanen, Senior Specialist
Border crossing collaborations, presentation by Lars Røslie, University hospital of Northern Norway
Crisis management in Norway, presentation by Lars Røslie, University hospital of Northern Norway
Hercules accident on Kebnekaise March 2012, presentation by Thomas Winnberg, fire chief Kiruna and Urban Johansson, Swedish police