Stockholm International Water Institute » Baltic Sea http://www.siwi.org Water Wise World Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:26:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 SIWI Implements Baltic Sea Project http://www.siwi.org/news/siwi-implements-baltic-sea-project/ http://www.siwi.org/news/siwi-implements-baltic-sea-project/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:38:43 +0000 Sanna http://www.siwi.org/?post_type=news&p=5158 Stockholm, Sweden (December 12 2012) – The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) is implementing a project to enhance civic action with partners in Russia, Kaliningrad Oblast, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden. The aim is to increase investments into good management of the transboundary rivers in the Eastern Baltic Sea Region and promote smart and green growth.

The project is implemented by SIWI in partnership with the Northern Dimension Foundation (Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia), the Institute of Economy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia), Global Water Partnership (Poland and Lithuania) and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (Sweden), with support from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).

The health of the entire Baltic Sea ecosystem is severely degraded. Pressure from agriculture, energy production, industries and maritime sectors have severely compromised the sea’s health, with most areas now affected by eutrophication, hazardous substances, and degraded biodiversity. Collaboration between the EU member states and Russia on its shared river basins is critical to tackle the deteriorating state of the common Baltic Sea, but collective action in this part of the Baltic is lagging behind.

The transboundary Neman (Poland, Lithuania, RF Kaliningrad Oblast, and Belarus) and Pregola (Poland and RF Kaliningrad Oblast) are two river systems draining into the Baltic Sea where multilateral cooperation is poor and investment in their management limited. In previous work undertaken by the partners (2009-2011) the need for improved water management in this part of the Baltic region was clearly identified. There is scope to achieve major economic gains in multiple sectors, improve ecosystem services while also reaching regional cooperative gains.

Civic action through NGOs and academic institutions can play a major role in building the political commitment for collective action. NGOs and academic institutions can bring skills and knowledge into pre-planning processes and provide a safe space for dialogue together with government officials. Such dialogue is non-committing and non-binding and should be based on sound knowledge and expertise.

This project aims to build an informal and professional partnership to formulate water and environmental management priorities and investments into an economic framework, recognising green and smart growth potential.

The intention is to facilitate official dialogue, cooperation and investment on the shared river basin systems between the Kaliningrad Oblast, Poland, Lithuania and the broader Baltic Sea community of actors, providing incentives for stakeholders to seek more information on how to transform degraded water resources into opportunities. Both EU and Russian regulations offer opportunities for joint management. Further arguments and clear investment frameworks need to be developed to stimulate formal cooperation based on best practice and good data.

The project “Building a framework for collective action in the management of the transboundary waters in Kaliningrad, Russia, Lithuania and Poland (Baltic Sea region)” is funded by the Swedish Institute and will be implemented over three years (2012-2015).

Related publications

For more information, contact:
Ms Birgitta Liss Lymer
Programme Manager
Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
Email: birgitta.liss.lymer@siwi.org
Phone: +46 8 121 360 89

]]> http://www.siwi.org/news/siwi-implements-baltic-sea-project/feed/ 0 Managing and Developing the Water Resources (EN) http://www.siwi.org/publication/managing-and-developing-the-water-resources-en/ http://www.siwi.org/publication/managing-and-developing-the-water-resources-en/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:50:08 +0000 admin http://www.siwi.org/publication/managing-and-developing-the-water-resources-en/ The report demonstrates how effective water resources management can support sustainable economic development in sectors such as tourism, health, agriculture and industry while at the same time restoring ecosystem services in accordance with the Russian Water Act and the EU Water Framework Directive. The report outlines specific steps to be taken by the Kaliningrad Oblast internally and in partnership with its neighbours to achieve concrete benefits from better management of the water resources. Collective action amongst all the states in the Baltic Sea Region will be critical to reach the vision of a healthy Baltic Sea as agreed by the contracting partners to the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) and by the EU members States. The report is prepared in partnership with the Nordic Dimension Foundation in the Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia with input from experts from Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.

Published in 2011.

]]> http://www.siwi.org/publication/managing-and-developing-the-water-resources-en/feed/ 0 Managing and Developing the Water Resources Assets in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia in Support of Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability http://www.siwi.org/publication/managing-and-developing-the-water-resources-assets-in-kaliningrad-oblast-russia-in-support-of-economic-growth-and-environmental-sustainability/ http://www.siwi.org/publication/managing-and-developing-the-water-resources-assets-in-kaliningrad-oblast-russia-in-support-of-economic-growth-and-environmental-sustainability/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:50:04 +0000 admin http://www.siwi.org/publication/managing-and-developing-the-water-resources-assets-in-kaliningrad-oblast-russia-in-support-of-economic-growth-and-environmental-sustainability/ The report demonstrates how effective water resources management can support sustainable economic development in sectors such as tourism, health, agriculture and industry while at the same time restoring ecosystem services in accordance with the Russian Water Act and the EU Water Framework Directive. The report outlines specific steps to be taken by the Kaliningrad Oblast internally and in partnership with its neighbours to achieve concrete benefits from better management of the water resources. Collective action amongst all the states in the Baltic Sea Region will be critical to reach the vision of a healthy Baltic Sea as agreed by the contracting partners to the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) and by the EU members States. The report is prepared in partnership with the Nordic Dimension Foundation in the Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia with input from experts from Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.

]]> http://www.siwi.org/publication/managing-and-developing-the-water-resources-assets-in-kaliningrad-oblast-russia-in-support-of-economic-growth-and-environmental-sustainability/feed/ 0 Collective Action in the Baltic Sea Region: Options for Strengthening Implementation of the Environmental Pillar of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region http://www.siwi.org/publication/collective-action-in-baltic-sea-options-for-strengthening-implementation-of-the-environmental-pillar-of-the-eu-strategy-for-the-baltic-sea-region/ http://www.siwi.org/publication/collective-action-in-baltic-sea-options-for-strengthening-implementation-of-the-environmental-pillar-of-the-eu-strategy-for-the-baltic-sea-region/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:49:32 +0000 admin http://www.siwi.org/publication/collective-action-in-baltic-sea-options-for-strengthening-implementation-of-the-environmental-pillar-of-the-eu-strategy-for-the-baltic-sea-region/ This paper gives key recommendations for collective action to improve the environmental status of the Baltic Sea, which continues to suffer from water quality degradation related to increased activities within its basin. The paper provides an overview of the region and the environmental and political challenges it faces, describes the EU’s collective approach to addressing those challenges in the new EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, focusing on the environmental pillar, “Making the Baltic Sea Region an Environmentally Sustainable Place”. Furthermore, it assesses the legal framework related to the environment and water resources into which the strategy is placed relative to national law, EU law, international law, and some illustrative third party arrangements with non-EU member countries in the wider Baltic Sea region. Four specific recommendations are offered related to the governance framework on how the member states and EU institutions might move forward with implementation of the strategy’s environmental pillar. These relate to assessing and strengthening the current fragmented institutional framework; improving the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the EU Baltic Sea Strategy; make a deepened legal assessment of overlapping international and EU law; and strengthening the existing EU Directive implementation in the EU member countries of the Baltic Sea Region.

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]]> http://www.siwi.org/publication/networking-between-parties-around-the-baltic-sea-and-lake-victoria/feed/ 0 From the Baltic Sea to Lake Victoria http://www.siwi.org/publication/from-the-baltic-sea-to-lake-victoria/ http://www.siwi.org/publication/from-the-baltic-sea-to-lake-victoria/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:26:46 +0000 admin http://www.siwi.org/publication/from-the-baltic-sea-to-lake-victoria/ This paper was conducted due to the visit of the high-level East African delegation in the Baltic Sea region. The purpose of the visit was to look into the experiences from the Baltic Sea cooperation and evaluate the relevance of these to Lake Victoria.

]]> http://www.siwi.org/publication/from-the-baltic-sea-to-lake-victoria/feed/ 0 High Level Seminar on the Assessment of Initiatives for Environmental Co-operation on Lake Victoria http://www.siwi.org/publication/high-level-seminar-on-the-assessment-of-initiatives-for-environmental-co-operation-on-lake-victoria/ http://www.siwi.org/publication/high-level-seminar-on-the-assessment-of-initiatives-for-environmental-co-operation-on-lake-victoria/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:25:35 +0000 admin http://www.siwi.org/publication/high-level-seminar-on-the-assessment-of-initiatives-for-environmental-co-operation-on-lake-victoria/ This paper was conducted due to the High-level Seminar on the Assessment of Initiatives for Environmental Co-operation on Lake Victoria. The objective of the seminar was to apply experience from the Baltic Sea region and the cooperation between neighbouring countries to cope with environmental problems, to the situation of environmental degradation in the region of Lake Victoria.

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