For those of you who missed our session at this year’s World Water Week we have now received the recording. We held the session together with John Nurminen Foundation and it addresses how the Baltic Sea may act as a miniature example of one of the globally most pressing environmental problems.

In the Restoration Project we have now had discussions with 6 municipalities that have shown interest in aluminium treatment of lakes and bays. One of those municipalities has taken a decision to treat a coastal area. In Q322 the Restoration Project also held an inspirational day on internal load in Uppsala, an event that has been followed by many fruitful meetings and discussions with municipalities in the area.

Already in its second quarter the Port project managed to achieve substantial results. Our project manager has managed to visit several terminals in Poland, despite the extraordinary situation in Polish ports following to the ongoing war. During these visits, we found roughly 10 tons of phosphoric rock spread on the ground and in open piles. Through bringing awareness about the potential consequences of this substance ending up in the sea the dialogue resulted in cleaning these areas – a great win for the Baltic Sea.

In addition two specific projects with two different terminals are being discussed and the project has successfully obtained contacts of interest on the other side of Poland’s coast, more specifically, Szczecin Port. An opportunity that will be unlocked directly after summer vacations.

As a result of our event in Nyköping, we have new discussions with five Swedish municipalities – on the technology to bind phosphorus in the bottom sediment. We will organize another inspirational day in Uppsala on September 13th, more information further down in the newsletter.

The 1,1 MSEK grant for Lokala vattenvårdsprojekt (LOVA) which was granted RFTB in Q1, has already opened opportunities to cooperate with an extended number of partners. We attended LIFE IP Rich Water's event to discuss how all the projects within the programme are proceeding. We see a value in how our project will contribute to a further development of a method to reduce internal load of phosphorus in brackish waters.

The Production Project is still in its build-up. Despite some troubles caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine the project has already come a long way. In the past quarter we held several important meetings with our partners. We have also met with the port management at one of the larger fertilizer production facilities around the Baltic Sea and initiated discussion on how to minimize losses to the sea.

Furthermore, our best practices with regards to bulk fertilizer leakage reduction have been presented at two international conferences; ESPC4 and Argus Fertilizer East Europe in Warsaw. During the Warsaw conference our Business Manager Kamil Jagodzinski took part in a discussion panel “Shipping and Logistics symposium: Challenges for ports and shippers”.

Race For The Baltic together with the Baltic Sea Challenge held The BSCAC spring event in Helsinki. The meeting gathered 10 municipalities from Sweden, Finland and Lithuania for a three-day event – to speed up eutrophication measures in their regions. Topics in focus were nutrient calculations and recycling, indicators for SDG 14 and solutions to prevent agricultural runoff: gypsum, structural liming, biochar, and wetlands. The event consisted of seven external presentations, two field trips and two workshops.

In keeping with our ambition to continue to increase knowledge about the impact of horse manure on eutrophication and encourage more frequent mucking of pastures, we reactivated the campaign with targeted communications activities in May 2022.

Further, a seminar provocatively titled, “Can the horse industry save the Baltic Sea?” was moderated by Peter Wiwen-Nilsson at Almedalsveckan, a week-long democratic meeting place held annually on Gotland.

Race For The Baltic has been granted 1,1 MSEK for Lokala vattenvårdsprojekt (LOVA) from Blekinge Länsstyrelse, to conduct a project together with SLU and Life IP Rich Waters. The grant will be used for collection of data in two bays in Blekinge County, including measurements of water flows as well as water and sediment analysis.

With a successful inspirational day in southern Sweden in Q4 fresh in mind, planning has started for a new inspirational day in Nyköping 5th of May related to measures against eutrophication.

As a spin-off to the Port Project the Production Project started in January 2022. Whilst the Port Project is addressing the unloading and loading of dry bulk fertilizer in ports the Production Project will address additional and more production-oriented areas that has impact on the phosphorus leakage into the Baltic Sea. The identified areas have been found in close co-operation with fertilizer producers, ports representatives, other NGOs, business consultants and governmental agencies.

The Port Project has entered its next phase and will target even more ports where Race For The Baltic can implement initiatives against eutrophication. We have identified four ports in Poland and Lithuania where our prevention cover solution could have a great impact on the phosphorus inflow to the Baltic Sea.

Planning has started for this year's Baltic Sea Day which takes place on the 25th of August. The day was initiated by the John Nurminen Foundation and has quickly become a major event in Finland. Now we want Sweden to also join this celebration of our beautiful and important sea. It is therefore gratifying to see the great interest from the broad range of actors who want to raise Baltic Sea issues. Together, we can increase knowledge and commitment to improve the environmental state of the Baltic Sea.

The implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive is Sweden's largest water management project ever. The measures land with great emphasis on the countryside with measures such as individual sewers and plant cultivation. The overall goal according to the Water Framework Directive is that all water bodies must have good water status in 2021, or by 2027 at the latest, and that water quality must not deteriorate. Good water status refers to the ecological and chemical status of surface water and the chemical and quantitative status of groundwater.

Den 5 maj bjuder Race For The Baltic in dig som jobbar med vattenfrågor till en inspirerande dag för att diskutera tillståndet i Östersjön, övergödning, internbelastning och vilka förslag på åtgärder som finns för att effektivt kunna komma framåt i arbetet för att nå EUs vattendirektiv år 2027. Dagen består av föreläsningar och mingel på Sunlight i Nyköping den 5 maj kl. 09.00-16.30. Läs mer och anmäl dig här.

During 2021 the Baltic Fish Project has grown from 3 to 10 involved fishermen and together they have fished more than 18 tonnes of bream and ide.

In the past quarter a lot of efforts were put into knowledge about the technology. During the quarter we have had individual meetings with municipalities, participated in LIFE IP Rich Waters inspirational event for municipalities, hosted an event for municipalities in southern Sweden and developed marketing material including a movie

In 2021 we held workshops at two different occasions with 17 different municipalities from 5 different countries. We are experiencing good progress and knowledge exchange amongst our municipalities and our next meeting is scheduled for the 26th-28th of April 2022 in Helsinki.