Photo: Jarmo Laine
Objective
The objective of Baltic 21 is regional sustainable development. Baltic 21 will involve governments, inter-governmental organizations, international financing institutions and non-governmental organizations as well as the European Union, the academic world and the general public of the Baltic Sea Region. The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) has produced a comprehensive background report analysing the potential for an Agenda 21 for the BSR and outlined a set of basic elements that could be covered in the development process.
Process
An Agenda 21 for the Baltic Sea Region should be ready for consideration in the spring of 1998. The Saltsjöbaden Declaration established a Senior Officials Group (SOG) to immediately start work on developing an Agenda 21. This group had its first meeting in Stockholm, 23 - 24 January 1997 and the next one will be held in Riga in March. Also UBC has been invited as a full member to the SOG.Progress reports will be prepared for the 1997 Summit Meeting of the Heads of Government in the Baltic Sea Region, the CSD 5 (Commission on Sustainable Development) and the Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1997 as well as the Environment for Europe Conference in Denmark in June 1998.
Sweden assists the process by providing a secretariat and other resources for the period of one and a half years.
Regional cooperation and key sectors
The Baltic 21 will concentrate on regional cooperation. The aim is not to duplicate or upscale national and Local Agenda 21´s but to build on work already done, in particular the HELCOM JCP and VASAB 2010.An important principle of work will be sector integration . The sectors to be prioritized are agriculture, energy, fishery, forestry, industry, tourism and transport.
Open for participation
The ministers decided that the process to develop an Agenda 21 for the BSR should be democratic, transparent and open to participation to all actors in the region. To facilitate this the homepage "Creating an Agenda 21 for the Baltic Sea Region" has been established to provide an interactive forum for information exchange and debate. Further work to develop a fully interactive website for the Baltic 21 process is underway.For further information, please contact the Baltic 21 secretariat , Prof. Lars Kristoferson or fax: +46 8 4054178. Your ideas and suggestions concerning the Agenda 21 for the Baltic Sea Region are warmly welcomed!
UBC is represented in the steering group (SOG) by Mr Peter Gavelin from Sundsvall, Sweden. You are also welcome to contact him in issues that concern UBC´s role and contribution to the Baltic 21, fax: 46 60 614437.
