NIB congratulates the Baltic Sea Fund on its 25th anniversary

Former Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen receives the annual Baltic Sea Award, accompanied by Baltic Sea Fund Managing Director Lotta Nummelin and founder Anders Wiklöf.
Photo: Daniel Eriksson, Ålandstidningen

NIB recognises the work of the Åland Foundation for the Future of the Baltic Sea to promote research and activites to protect the environment. Both NIB and the Baltic Sea Fund envision a clean and healthy Baltic Sea for the joy and use of the people of the region.

The Baltic Sea Fund was founded in 1989 to promote and support research and activities to protect the Baltic Sea environment from eutrophication leading to intense algal growth and fish mortality.

“The main reason for NIB to support the Baltic Sea Fund is to help foster a network of local industries, academia and politicians with an interest in restoring the ecological status of the Baltic Sea,” says Johan Ljungberg, Head of Sustainability & Mandate at NIB.

Managing Director Lotta Nummelin of the Baltic Sea Fund says the foundation’s biggest achievement are the questions and issues brought into public debate by the more than 70 laureates for its annual awards. The laureates largely work within a broad range of issues including shipping, climate change, opinion building, municipal water treatment, boating and the reduction of eutrophication.

“Without pioneers things would not go forward,” says Nummelin.

On the 9 May, the Baltic Sea Fund awarded Paavo Lipponen for emphasising the importance of environmental issues during his time as Finland’s Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament and in his work for Nordic cooperation. In addition, Professor Hans von Storch from Hamburg, Germany was awarded for his studies on the effects of climate change on the Baltic Sea.

What do you see as crucial for the Baltic Sea?
“Baltic Sea issues, as well as other environmental issues, are still very much neglected in daily decision-making. We should seek to achieve a situation where the starting point is what the environment can handle, and then to prioritise the protection of the sea to a higher degree,” Nummelin says.

When is the job of your foundation done?
“Our work will be done when there are no longer any pioneers working for the Baltic Sea, and that will probably not happen any time soon. And when we someday have a cleaner Baltic Sea, I’m sure we will still need forerunners to work towards keeping it clean,” says Nummelin.

While the Baltic Sea Fund raises awareness of the Baltic Sea and its needs, NIB allocates funds to the actual projects that can help to save the sea, such as reducing eutrophication. NIB has committed EUR 500 million in a Baltic Sea Environment Financing Facility (BASE) to provide loans for this purpose. Some EUR 330 million have so far been allocated under the facility.

One recent project financed via the BASE facility is the 12-kilometre Northern Tunnel Collector in St Petersburg. It was taken into use in 2013, and ends the city’s discharges of untreated effluent into the Baltic Sea. Today, 98% of St Petersburg’s wastewater volume is treated and that is a huge improvement for the Baltic Sea.

NIB also recognises the work of HELCOM to implement the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP). The aim of the plan is to restore the good ecological status of the Baltic marine environment. You can read more about NIB’s work for a sustainable future also for the Baltic Sea at www.nib.int. Information about the Baltic Sea Fund can be found at www.ostersjofonden.org.