Baltic COMPASS -
Comprehensive Policy Actions and Sustainable Solutions for Agriculture in the Baltic Sea Region

Summary

Baltic COMPASS project has grown out of a large number of international projects in the field of landuse, agriculture, water and environment related to the protection of the Baltic Sea. Specifically, Baltic COMPASS is a response to the need for a transnational approach to reduce eutrophication of the Baltic Sea and to build adaptive management capacity with respect to international frameworks, EU directives and the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP). The project will particularly aim to remedy the gaps in the stakeholders' capacity and resources to combat euthrophication and communicate on the different policy levels, and the lack of trust between the environmental and agricultural sectors. The project aims to support win-win solutions for agriculture, environment and the people throughout the Baltic Sea Region. 22 partners from authorities, interest organizations and research institutes in Finland, Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden constitutes the partnership.

The target groups for Baltic COMPASS are governments, authorities, agencies, interest organizations and companies with influence on land use in the Baltic Sea Region. Land use for agricultural purposes in the BSR is expected to intensify due to climate change and increasing global demands for food and bioenergy. This is likely to exacerbate current pressures on the sensitive marine ecosystems. The  competence, technologies, policies and science for developing more sustainable solutions are available in the BSR, but these are currently unevenly distributed and harmonized between regions, and moreover between the west and the east. This is the specific transnational problem and challenge addressed by Baltic COMPASS. The partnership will spread the utilization of best practices, boost innovation and investments in environmental technologies, strengthen governance and policy adaption, and promote the Baltic Sea Region as a pilot region for innovative solutions related to combating eutrophication.

Activities in the project will all contribute to two instrument drivers of change in the BSR: an adaptive policy environment and an enabling environment for investment. As a strategic project Baltic COMPASS will focus on activities which add value to ongoing projects, actions and policies. Cooperation with other projects like WATERPRAXIS, BIOENERGY PROMOTION, BALTIC CLIMATE, NEW BRIDGES, Aquarius, Baltic DEAL and Beras is essential. The project underlines cooperation with Russia through complementary funding. The partnership will secure sustainability of results through close cooperation with administrations and national authorities, and through pilot investments in renewable energy utilization, improved nutrient management and small-scale climate change mitigation on farm level. Baltic COMPASS incorporates the objectives of the EU Lisbon strategy, EU Marine Strategy Directive and the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, especially in combining environmental and economic sustainability.

The project runs from December 2009 until December 2012 and has a budget of 6,7 MEUR co-financed by EU Baltic Sea Region Programme.

Please visit the project website www.balticcompass.org for details and follow-up of the project activities or contact project focal point at HELCOM Secretariat: 

Kaj Granholm
Project Researcher
e-mail: kaj.granholm@helcom.fi
Tel. +358 46 850 9208
Fax: +358 207 412 645

Last updated 18 January 2010