In memoriam of Lennart Gladh
We have lost a very good friend, true nature lover and defender of our shared environment.
Lennart Gladh… “a biologist who likes fly fishing and clean water as well as living in the country-side among cows and cornfields” as he described himself in Twitter… Lennart was very humble person with certainly wider range of interests and real passion to nature around.
During last two years, Lennart was courageously fighting cancer that struck again hard in early 2021…
Lennart Gladh will be strongly missed by many people in CCB’s network and our hearts and souls are with his family and friends during these days…
Rest in peace, friend, and let Mother Nature heal and care about you, as you did to her…
Jointly with WWF and SLU we have created the ‘In memoriam’ board, where anyone can contribute: https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/wTW4Z2Qe
“We met Lennart in Latvia during our cooperation on Baltic Sea issues together with WWF Latvia. Lennart’s international experience and competence and a strong direct position on the real essence of things were useful in our work on water protection issues in Latvia. Our contacts with him continued during our experience exchange visit to Sweden on dam removal project in 2018, where we got to know Lennart as a nature enthusiast and always a curious person, willing to explore and to know things more deeply. This cooperation lasted until just a week ago, and unfortunately, our communication about river dams will remain unanswered… Dear Lennart, let sailing wind take and lead you in your eternal journey…”
(Aija Caune, Latvia)
“With great regret I received the news of the death of Lennart. For several years, I had the pleasure of working with him on the CCB’s Board where he represented the WWF Sweden. You could always count on his balanced and always accurate view of the matter. He proved to be a very open-minded and knowledgeable person, very cheerful and pleasant. Lennart’s death is an irreparable loss to the CCB’s community, but also for the Baltic Sea natural environment, of which he was a tireless defender and advocate. I will miss his great professionalism, good and wise advice, peace and sincere dedication to the cause – protection of the Baltic Sea, which he loved so much, and for which he devoted many years of his life. He was just a good man.”
(Jakub Skorupski, Poland)
“Trying to solve environmental problems from the office, with often poor knowledge about the actual field locations, has become increasingly mainstream over years. Not so with Lennart. He was always on the spot, had an impressive familiarity with a profusion of sites scattered all over the Baltic Sea region, knew the specific peculiarities, the acting people and the local ecology. Lennart’s goals were working solutions – results that would last for ages, not just for a project lifetime. Working for these solutions needed a very strong will and stamina, paired by his excellent expertise on conservation ecology and successful implementation of measures”
(Jörg Schmiedel, Germany).
“I cherished Lennart’s opinion and his very down to earth approach to focusing on real actions for the environment. He was a bit akin to Voltairs Candide as in “ok that talk is all fine, but now time to tend our environment”. The importance and love of the sauna is something I will always connect to Lennart”
(Nils Höglund, Sweden)
“I got to know Lennart since 1997, while working together for integrated coastal zone management of Vistula and Curonian Lagoons. Then we met several times when he was coordinating preparation of Nature Conservation Plan for Kaliningrad Region, explored Nemunas Delta, its wetlands, floodplains and polders… in a while, we have re-connected at HELCOM meetings, where he represented WWF… and couple of years later our routes have crossed again in CCB… He kept on being very impatient to slow and toothless efforts of environmental governance in the Baltic Sea Region and was very straightforward in criticizing authorities and industries, especially hydropower and agriculture, as avoiding painful, but needed actions to save the Baltic. He was true Baltic Warrior – strong and stubborn as a Viking, respecting and caring the nature around, enjoying and nurturing its wilderness and beauty, eager to learn and share his vast experience…”
(Mikhail Durkin, Russia)
“Lennart was working for many years with WWF, but also closely involved with CCB the last 5-7 years, e.g. as member of the CCB Board and as Senior advisor to CCB. I will miss his wide competence and knowledge on river management and fisheries management. His death is a great loss for the Baltic Environmental NGO community and for our project work on Free rivers. I always enjoyed his company, exchange of ideas, discussions, his support, laugh and frankness.”
(Gunnar Norén, Sweden).
Coalition Clean Baltic family
