Maritime
Since 2017, The Latvian Green Movement (LaGM) and the Association of Disabled People and their Friends “Apeirons” have started work on the development of a unique nature accessibility certificate “NaAc” (Nature Accessible) to ensure accessibility to in the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea, observing all the principles of nature protection and also promoting the economic growth of small entrepreneurs and municipalities. The main criteria for obtaining such a nature accessibility certificate are ensuring the accessibility of coastal natural objects, following the principles of universal design, starting from the car park and ending with the universal toilet.
In 2022, the work continued and included:
- NaAC seminar arranged by LaGM on 1 December 2022 with representatives from Lithuanian Disabled persons NGO in Jurmala.
- Experience exchange on Nature Accessibility with Swedish partners in St.Anna Archipelago of Soderkoping’s municipality during summer 2022. 5 LaGM experts visited several nature reserves and recreation areas to monitor nature accessibility in coastal areas of Sweden.
- Environmental solutions for disabled persons in nature protected areas were promoted by installation of a dry toilet (Separett) in at the territory of one of the oldest parks "Zalizna Voda" in Lviv, Ukraine on the territory of the rural area of the city horticulture and garden center "Rozsadnyk".
The work on coastal protection measures continued in 2022 through “Save Latvian Dunes” campaign supporting sustainable development solutions to provide accessible infrastructure for sustainable and inclusive tourism in coastal areas. More than 4 joint initiatives have been arranged both in Mersrags and Ventspils dune areas in June and August. 23 activists from LaGM participated and set up 46 signs on illegal roads. The activists closed 3 illegal dune roads by building wooden blocks. They restored grey dune biotope in Berzciems in area of 7 ha.
The second activity comprised of CCB’s work with its MOs to update the map the areas in need of coastal protection and arrange a workshop for external stakeholders to share the knowledge on efficient ways of coastal strip protection. This work aims to contribute to both HELCOM’s work on protection of Baltic coasts, as well as to national and municipal climate change adaptation strategies. As a part of this work, a CCB webinar about the restoration and protection of Curonian Spit foredune was arranged on 10 February 2022, as a response to devastating impacts of hurricanes Elsa and Gerhard, that roared through south-east Baltic destroying a lot of natural amenities along the coastline. Also, the 3rd Coastal Youth Forum was arranged on 12 December 2022 gathering 7 coastal schools at the Zūru elementary school of Ventspils district, Latvia, focusing on coastal nature diversity.
Awareness raising and engagement in coastal protection
In 2022, the re-launch of the CoastWATCH citizen science initiative included the application of the CoastWATCH manual to relevant MOs across CCB based on inputs from national experiences, and arranging national and Baltic CoastWATCH workshops and events:
- In Latvia, the MO Latvian Green Movement, organized a CoastWATCH with 9 schools in October 2022 and the 3rd Coastal Youth Forum.
- The CCB Coastal Watching Days took place in October 2022. The CCB Maritime Working Area members prepared a questionnaire for the event. It could be filled out while walking along the shore and it didn't require any special knowledge, so everyone could join.
- The development of the Coastal Watch module in the Clean Games mobile app was launched (to be accomplished in 2023 with external support).
Since 2019 the work on marine and other coastal litter has been focused on coastal cleanup events, including its gamification, using e.g. the Clean Games concept that resulted in CCB’s involvement in 2020-2021 Clean Games Baltic Cup with participation of Latvian and Belarusian CCB MOs and partners. Clean Games (CG) is a team competition aimed at cleaning up natural areas from garbage and sorting the waste.
It is an exciting game with prizes being awarded, with participants looking for artefacts, solving environmental puzzles, collecting and separating waste, getting points for it.
In 2022, CCB continued maintaining a beach litter monitoring network in the BSR gathering knowledge and data following the Clean Games approach and involving more partners into its implementation. The following 2022 results of the CG clean-ups were reported: Finland, Kajaani: 2 games; 368 participants; 795.74 kg of garbage; Estonia: 3 games; 284 participants; 1,9 tons.
Large coastal and offshore infrastructure
In 2022, CCB continued implementing MSP games in selected sea areas primarily within transboundary context. It resulted in arrangement on 17 November 2022 of an educational game IF I WAS THE DECISION MAKER. The game was arranged at the 1st Game for high school classes of Talsi region schools, at Talsi Youth Center, in Latvia. LaGM (Latvian Green Movement, CCB MO) plans to continue with this Game in other schools and universities.
In 2022, only one game was held, but in 2023 the plan is to hold 3 games in an online format for the CCB network.
Within recent years the BSR has been experiencing a boost of various large-scale development projects, ranging from pipelines, oil terminals, nuclear power plants and wind parks to navigation canals connecting different watersheds. In 2022 CCB has continued coordinating with MOs to keep track of development on large infrastructure projects:
- Lynetteholm case. Following the work in 2021, CCB submitted in July a joint complaint together with Climate Movement in Denmark and the MO Danish Society for Nature Conservation to the EC and EP.
- Nord Stream 1 & 2. In September, CCB expressed serious concerns about the natural gas leakages from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.
- CCB expressed concerns on lack of information and consultations with general public with regards to the Odra pollution incident (handled under WA Eutrophication).