Baltic Marine Litter

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The situation of marine litter in the Baltic Sea is relatively unknown. Reports from different countries are scarce and data can’t be compared since different collecting and reporting methods are used. Tourism and recreational activities are one of the most important sources of litter and population density in the Central Baltic region is especially high in coastal areas and tourism is increasing. In order to put marine litter on the daily agenda among the public and policy makers, there is a need for raised awareness on marine litter as well as increased knowledge on amounts, sources, types of litter and how to mitigate the negative effects of marine litter. Litter ending up on beaches causes threats to wildlife, extra costs for municipalities by cleaning beaches and water intake pipes and contributes to unattractive coastal areas for inhabitants and visitors. 2009 UNEP/Regional Seas launched the first common guidelines on marine litter assessments. The project will implement this method in 12 key areas in Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia (in total 96 clean ups). This will be the first time ever to approach marine litter with a harmonized method in a regional, cross border perspective. Central Baltic region will be a role model and good example for the Baltic Sea, for the European Union and worldwide. One work package will work with practical actions to implement the method. Parallel to this work the other work package will focus on environmental awareness and increased knowledge on marine litter. Litter is a very visual pollutant and thus media friendly. The project will work intensively with press releases and debate articles as well as participation at coastal public events to reach several thousands people of important target groups (local decision makers, tourists and coastal inhabitants). International conferences will be held for important stakeholders dealing with coastal environment and training sessions will be held for beach clean-up teams. Project partners are experts in opinion building activities and coastal environmental issues and have a well developed network in order to set-up beach clean-up teams as well as established contacts with coastal municipalities. The main results will be to implement the UNEP guidelines and write a recommendation document for future implementations and the collected data on marine litter will be used in order to create marine litter action plans that will be adapted to running coastal zone/conservation programmes. The data will also be the first attempt to describe the marine litter situation in the Baltic Sea. During project time, new key areas will be identified.

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