Arctic Yearbook 2014 | Page 588

588       Arctic Yearbook 2014     The “Eco-Efficient Tourism Project” is a concrete example of local, people-to-people cooperation that has the potential to reinforce cross-border relations, create closer relationships between regional/international stakeholders, and engage collaboration around a common objective with beneficial impacts on local economies. For some people, having lavatories or road signs for tourists are pretty common things back home. For others, like in Karelia, building such infrastructures are a complete change of culture that can only be initiated, implemented and sustained through cross-border cooperation for region building and knowledge sharing in such an important borderland between Russia and the European Union. Hopefully more projects similar to this one will be funded and implemented in the years to come. About “Eco-Efficient Tourism Project” Khabarov & Plouffe