Baltic Sea commitments contain something old, something new, and something borrowed

According to researcher, protection commitments declared so far are not enough

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Even with the best of intentions, the package of 137 Baltic Sea commitments received so far from businesses, organisations, and foundations to improve the state of the threatened Baltic Sea cannot be called revolutionary.
      Some of the commitments are undertakings already in progress, and some qualify as mere “greenwashing” attempts - a concept familiar from the business world. An individual travel agency’s pledge to reduce its use of paper probably would have materialised even without the Baltic Sea Action Summit.
      Nevertheless, researcher Seppo Knuuttila from Finland’s Environmental Administration (SYKE) considers the package very significant.
      “The commitments very greatly in size. The Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG) Foundation should be commended simply for initiating an avalanche-like protection movement such as this.”
      According to Knuuttila, the value of the received commitments package is in the fact that it brings together a large number of very different types of actors and protection projects.
      The endeavour encompasses states, businesses, cities, universities, foundations, and environmental organisations.
     
Following a request by Helsingin Sanomat the researcher evaluates the weight of the received commitments. Which undertakings will have noticeable effects?
      “We are still waiting for the truly remarkable and important commitments. Perhaps they will make their appearance in Wednesday’s summit, when various states present their commitments.”
      According to Knuuttila the commitments published so far are not enough, if measured against the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (also known as HELCOM or Helsinki Commission) objective to get the world’s second largest body of brackish water into good shape by the year 2021.
     
This would call for, among other things, the drastic reduction of the environmental stress from agriculture in all the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea.
      “Of our own coastal areas the Southwestern Archipelago is the body of water most heavily strained by agriculture. Its good condition will remain unattainable unless dramatic reductions are introduced to the flow of agricultural nutrients into terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems”, Knuuttila charges.
     
The Baltic Sea Action Summit is to be attended by numerous heads of state and government from countries with coastlines on the fragile and threatened Baltic Sea (see earlier article).


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Baltic Sea Action Summit to convene in Helsinki on Wednesday (8.2.2010)

Links:
  Baltic Sea Action Summit

Helsingin Sanomat