Plan Bothnia

Plan Bothnia -the Baltic Sea transboundary MSP Preparatory Action -has completed its work

Dear All,

With some nostalgy I just want to inform you all that Plan Bothnia, the DG MARE funded MSP preparatory action for the Baltic Sea (2010-2012), has completed its work on 1. June 2012.

During the 18 project months we achieved to complete a successful and we believe a state-of-the-art test of comprehensive and transboundary MSP in the Baltic Sea. This was created as a joint product between competent planning authorities from both sides of the Finnish-Swedish border and is thus anchored to the real life work of MSP planners in two separate countries. This makes this practical initiative different from the many theoretical MSP research projects in the Baltic, around Europe and the world.

The summary publication released during the European Maritime Day 2012 in Gothenburg (21.-22. May) gives you a possibility to dive into the topic of transboundary MSP with a concrete, and hopefully inspiring example.

The plan publication includes also commentaries by five international experts on MSP, our peer reviewers, who reflect on the contribution of the Plan Bothnia project to other sea areas ranging from Australia, US, Canada as well as more close waters around Spain and the UK.

(UPDATE 24.9.2012) Please note that we are working on the online pdf version. Our graphic designers have to make some minor corrections to the file according to observations made after the release of the hard copy version. We will make a final post with the link when available.

In the meanwhile please contact us for a hard copy if you are interested in the end product.

Plan Bothnia steaming to the goal

The followers of Plan Bothnia might have noticed that no blogposts have rolled in lately. This is not indicating that we at the Lead Partner (HELCOM Secretariat) have been standing still. In contrast, it means that we have been all tied up to finalise our initiative!

At the concluding Plan Bothnia MSP 5 meeting in Vasa 19.-21. March we managed to wrap up many of the remaining loose strands. The twenty participants gave their best to complete the Plan Bothnia MSP plan as well as looked at the final publication. We had also a joint session with SeaGis -a MSP project which has recently started in the Quark area -northern Bothnian Sea.

Plan Bothnia MSP5 Participants discussing the future of traffic patterns around the Bothnian Sea

After the meeting we have been compiling our final publication for print. With close to a hundred maps and a complex text this publication has been, and still remains for a few weeks, a truly exiting and challenging task.

During these short weeks our partners have provided input and comments. Our graphics team has been churning out visualisations based on our directions. Our critical review team of MSP experts around the world have given us good comments on the text. Our language editor has been busy. In short this has been a busy period for our project.

But all good things come to an end -and so does Plan Bothnia. After we finish our work with the publication we start steering in to the final harbour- the Final conference in Gothenburg. Or actually final conferences as there will be two opportunities to reflect on our project.

As mentioned, we will have a 1,5h session with MASPNOSE during stakeholder part of the European maritime Day (22.May 2012) which will focus on general lessons learned on transboundary MSP.

The day after, the 23rd may we will organise a full day of MSP in Gothenburg which will not only present our findings in more detail, but importantly also take a look at the future of MSP in Sweden and Europe. Programme and registration will follow shortly.

Welcome to discuss -and collect your example of the Plan Bothnia pilot plan. Book your calendars!

A large pine oil slick threatening the Finnish Bothnian Sea coast

A piece of Plan Bothnia planning area-relevant news:

A two km long and 600 m wide slick consisting of raw pine oil has been moving east from Söderhamn in Swedish coast of the Bothnian Sea since 20 December. The slick will likely hit the Pori coast during the coming night.

Approximately a quarter of the estimated 0.8 Million liter leak has been recovered by the Swedish authorities. It seems Finnish assistance offshore has been made difficult by the storm Dagmar, blowing with full force over the area last night.

Pine oil in the Bothnian Sea archipelago (Photo: Swedish Coast Guard)

The slick originates from a container on land within the worlds largest pine oil refinery in Sandarne, close to Söderhamn on  the Swedish coast. The facility is owned by the U.S. based Arizona Chemicals Ltd.

Pine oil is a thick destillate from pine debris like needles, twigs and cones with various industrial and household uses (e.g. pine soap). It smears e.g. birds like mineral oil and is toxic at least to smaller forms of life.

Link to information by the Söderhamn county (in Swedish)

Link to news in english (Monday 26. Dec)

Plan Bothnia wishes you a very relaxing Christmas and New Year!

After a year full of MSP, meetings and reporting it sure is good to focus on some other things for a while…

Hope we will get scenery like this soon again. (Photo: HELCOM)

We will be back for more MSP in 2012!

Hermanni Backer (Project Manager)

2nd commenting round for consultant study on “minimum requirements for MSP”

The Plan Bothnia project includes as a deliverable (Deliverable 5.2.4) a study on “Region-wide recommendations on minimum requirements for MSP systems” coordinated by Plan Bothnia project partner VASAB secretariat. This will be carried out in two parts -Part I: Minimum requirements for MSP in the Baltic Sea and Part II: Methodology for identifying best MSP practices. The final result will be published as a part of the Plan Bothnia final report.

The selected experts,  Dr. Bernhard Heinrichs (Part I) and Dr. Jacek Zaucha (Part II)  submitted first concept drafts according to the contract by the end of July 2011. These documents were posted i.a. on this blog with a request for comments (see our post dated 27 July 2011).

Based on the input received the consultants have now drafted more complete versions which are open for another round of comments. The second draft files received are available from the folder “Consultancy study on Minimum requirements -Best practices” of the Plan Bothnia Document library accessible through the tab “Documents”at the Plan Bothnia website.

Commenting on these drafts is open for all interested parties until 15 January 2012. Comment directly on this blogpost or, preferably, send comments via email as indicated on the front page of the documents (both to consultants and project partners)

The received comments will be used to create the last draft versions by mid-February, to be summarised in the Final Project report.

Plan Bothnia MSP3 (Helsinki) outcome available

The final outcome of the Plan Bothnia MSP3 meeting in Helsinki (19.-20. October 2011), as well as presentations, are now available through the MSP3 meeting folder in the project document library. Thank you for all the comments and input received from meeting participants!

The invitation and agenda for the next meeting, scheduled to take place 25 & 26 january 2012 in Sweden (venue tbc), will be sent shortly and posted on the document library.

PLAN BOTHNIA progress presented to EU member states in Brussels

Progress of the Plan Bothnia project was presented by Project Manager to all EU member state representatives on wednesday 21 September at the 10th meeting of the Member State Expert group on Maritime Policy (CC Albert Borchette, Rue Froissart, Brussels, Belgium) under the topic “update on Maritime Spatial Planning” (by DG MARE unit E1).

The expert group is the forum for information exchange on the EU Integrated Maritime Policy between the EU Commission DG MARE and the Member state representatives.  Besides MSP the agenda covered the Adriatic-Ionian basin Maritime strategy, the EMODnet initiative and a study on costs and benefits on EEZs in the Mediterranean.

The response to our project was positive- hope this raises further interest in our exciting initiative across the EU!

Consultation on concept drafts of MSP Minimum requirements & Best practices study

The Plan Bothnia project includes as a deliverable (Deliverable 5.2.4) a study on Region-wide recommendations on minimum requirements for MSP systems coordinated by Plan Bothnia project partner VASAB secretariat. This will be carried out in two parts -Part I: Minimum requirements for MSP in the Baltic Sea and Part II: Methodology for identifying best MSP practices. The final result will be published as a part of the Plan Bothnia final report.

After examining proposals received to the public call for tenders, launched by VASAB secretariat on 10th May 2011,  Dr. Bernhard Heinrichs (Part I) and Dr. Jacek Zaucha (Part II) were contracted on June 2011 to carry out this study. These experts submitted first concept drafts according to the contract by the end of July 2011.

The first concept draft files received are available from the folder “Consultancy study on Minimum requirements -Best practices” of the Plan Bothnia Document library accessible through the tab “Documents”at the Plan Bothnia website.

The consultants and project partners would appreciate your comments on these draft documents to develop them further. Please see instructions on the cover page of the documents.

Commenting on these first concept drafts is open for all interested parties until 15 August 2011. The received written comments will be also added to the same folder in the document library as the draft files.

The received comments will be used by the consultants for new versions to be available by the end of September 2011 for i.a the next HELCOM-VASAB MSP WG meeting.  Commenting on later versions will be announced separately.

PLAN BOTHNIA in the headlines!

During July PLAN BOTHNIA has featured prominently in at least two daily newspapers.

A frontpage piece “Bottenhavet skall få en unik maritim plan” (The Bothnian sea will get a unique maritime plan) by Titte Törnroth-Sarkkinen was published 6 July in the Åland Islands daily newspaper “Nya Åland“.

Another article “Luontoäidin palveluihin liittyy suuria taloudellisia arvoja” (The services of Mother Earth are connected with great economic values) by Jarmo Wallenius was published online 5 July in Finlands third largest newspaper “Turun Sanomat“.

Uppsala meeting outcome available

The final Outcome of the PLAN BOTHNIA MSP 2 meeting which took place in Uppsala, Sweden 14.-15. June is now available through the Uppsala meeting folder of the PLAN BOTHNIA document library.