THE BALTIC SEA DAY 2005 IN ST.PETERSBURG

The International Environmental Forum "Baltic Sea Day" was held in St.Petersburg on 22-23 March 2005.

More than 350 participants from all Baltic countries, including representatives of European Commission, HELCOM, NEFCO, Ministers for environment of Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Poland, NGOs, universities, scientific institutions, business companies took part in the Forum. CCB members and partners were represented by Children of the Baltic, Ecodefence-Kaliningrad, Centre for Environmental Initiatives and Baltic Fund for Nature.

The Forum was devoted to the 30-th Anniversary of Helsinki Convention. HELCOM was involved to the arrangement of the Forum, including working sessions concerning data collection on hazardous substances, "hot spots", and raising public awareness.

Concerning hazardous substances, Forum participants stated that most urgent is to reach agreement on research methods, to make comparable the data obtained by different organisations and experts from the Baltic countries. The Forum recommended to harmonise terms, methods and strategies concerning hazardous substances in all HELCOM countries for promotion of effective data collection and information exchange. This recommendation was supported by the Section "Quality of water and bottom sediments in the Gulf of Finland".

The Forum paid special attention to discussion on "Hot Spots" in the Baltic Sea and interaction with financial institutions. Recommendations of the Forum to HELCOM included:
- To revise and update "Hot Spots" programme, paying special attention to the criteria of their selections and possibility of financing.
- To establish special HELCOM working group for management of the "Hot Spots" programme.
- To make list of entities - owners of "Hot Spots".
- To establish an official body for assessing the correspondence of new projects in the Baltic Sea Region to HELCOM regulations, at the stage of the State Environmental Impact Assessment.
The last recommendation was proposed by Children of the Baltic.

Discussions of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) were focused on common approaches of EU countries and Russia to protection of water objects. The Forum participants recommended EU to involve Russia more actively to the EU environmental policy as the associated member of meetings, agreements and other EU events connected to WFD. Also, the Forum participants recommended to apply the WFD principles and rules to the pilot Russian regions, in particular, to transboundary water basins of the Gulf of Finland, Vuoksa/Saimaa and Peipus lakes, Narva, West Dvina and Neman rivers, and Curland and Vistula Lagoons.

The section "Interaction between the European Marine Strategy and the Russian Marine Strategy" was devoted mostly to the safety of oil transportation in the Baltic Sea. The workshop participants decided to ask HELCOME-RESPONCE group to organize discussions on technical aspects of discovering oil spills by remote probing and on juridical aspects of punishment for violators.

The Section on Russian-Estonian-Finnish cooperation was devoted to the euthrophication of the Gulf of Finland, to problems caused by invasive species and increasing pressure to the Gulf ecosystems from the maritime transport. The Section suggestions included:
- to apply methods for chemical precipitation of phosphorus at the St.Petersburg waste water treatment plant;
- to reduce nutrient emissions from transport, industry and agriculture in the Baltic Sea drainage area;
- to ask Governments to provide resources for developing monitoring and decreasing risk of transporting invasive species to the Gulf of Finland.
- to apply to HELCOM for granting the Gulf of Finland the status of International Demonstration Area for monitoring and management of invasive species in the Baltic Sea.

Participants of the Public Awareness Section discussed both methods for information collection and ways to make it requested by and available for various social strata. The experience of the Public Centre for Environmental Information that works in St.Petersburg since 2001 raised great interest. The Section participants paid special attention to establishment of the network of intersectoral Environmental Information Centres in the North-West Russia. The Public Awareness Section adopted the Appeal to the HELCOM Secretariat to support projects devoted to raising environmental public awareness in the Baltic Sea Region. Among these projects are:
- Strengthening and development of information centres.
- Involving business to the nature protection and creating the electronic stock exchange of new technologies.
- Raising public awareness concerning chemicals in consumer products.
- International "Blue Flag" certification of boat moorings, beaches and small ships.
- Application of the public hearings technology to regional and international socio-ecological problems.

The Baltic Sea Day in St.Petersburg gave participants great opportunity to meet colleagues and partners, and to exchange information, ideas and experiences. Strong international lobby work and active public participation is necessary for securing implementation of Forum decisions for protection of the Baltic Sea environment.

Olga Senova, Children of the Baltic