Habitat Contact Forum had been an arena for cooperation on habitat conservation issues in the Barents Region including adjacent marine areas. The aim was to achieve increased focus on proper management of existing protected areas, the need for additional protected areas and other measures relevant for habitat conservation.

The conference used to be organized every second year and it gathered representatives from management authorities, scientific institutions (including students) and civil society (NGOs) from all over the Barents region. It was established in 1999 to focus and coordinate nature conservation issues in the region. The latest Forum was held in 2019 in Murmansk, and the next one was scheduled for 2021, but got postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.