International conference to look into financial aspects of HELCOM's Baltic recovery plan implementation

Helsinki, 27 February (HELCOM Information Service) – With a backdrop of mounting public interest to the new Baltic recovery programme, up to 200 delegates, representing governments, scientific and business communities of the Baltic Sea coastal countries, as well as the European Community, CBSS and other major regional organizations will take part in the 3rd Stakeholder Conference on the Baltic Sea Action Plan on 4 March in Helsinki, Finland, to discuss the implementation of a new environmental scheme to reduce pollution and reverse the degradation of the Baltic marine environment which was approved by the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting on 15 November 2007.

The programme of the 3rd Stakeholder Conference will consist of two thematic sessions, which will be followed by a general roundtable discussion on the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan with the participation of senior government officials from the coastal countries, the European Community, international financial institutions and representatives of NGO’s.

The financial aspects of the plan’s implementation and the cost-efficiency of measures will be one of the top issues. “Discussions will particularly focus on the sources of funding, involvement of the international financial institutions and the private sector in the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan,” says Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “Much attention will be focused on  understanding their requirements for providing financing support, as well as how to prepare successful projects to ensure and increase the investments for marine environmental protection.”

The Conference will also feature a participatory activity, which aims to initiate a discussion with all relevant stakeholders on how broad-scale marine spatial planning can be used as a planning tool within HELCOM. Broad-scale marine spatial planning was one of the new concepts adopted within the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan. Through visual tools, the exercise will illustrate to the participants of the Conference, although in a simplistic way, the problems attached to marine spatial planning when balancing conservation interests and other uses of the marine environment in a multi-sectoral way.

The activity revolves around a fictive case, where information about various anthropogenic activities and natural values is given and participants have the task of proposing a division of the marine area for different uses. For this exercise the conference participants will be divided into smaller groups, each with a pre-selected group leader. The group leader will guide the discussion and take note of the main issues, conflicts and/or concerns as well as the group’s proposed solution. Finally, the group leader will represent their group in a discussion session that follows the one-hour long participatory exercise.

“The outcome of the sessions of the Conference will serve as an input to the plan’s implementation,” says Brusendorff. “HELCOM considers this input very important and is committed to respond to any suggestion raised by major stakeholder groups in the region in order to ensure that the plan is relevant and can be effectively implemented in practice.”

Follow-up:

Tentative programme for the 3rd Stakeholder Conference on the Baltic Sea Action Plan: http://www.helcom.fi/BSAP/3rd/en_GB/3rd_Stakeholder_Conf/.

Media Advisory: http://www.helcom.fi/press_office/news_helcom/en_GB/Meda_Advisory_3rdConference/

Media reminder:

Members of the news media wishing to cover the Conference should contact HELCOM Information Secretary Nikolay Vlasov at +358 (0) 207 412 635 or send an e-mail with their name, affiliation and contact information to nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi  no later than 3 March to arrange for credentials.

Note to Editors:

The Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental co-operation between the countries bordering the sea - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and also the European Community.  

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," more usually known as the Helsinki Convention.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Nikolay Vlasov

Information Secretary

HELCOM

Tel: +358 (0)207 412 635

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi