On the 28-29 of August FISH arranged a workshop together with the Polish NGOs Eko Unia and Klub Gaja. The workshop gathered NGO:s from all over Poland, as well as from Sweden and Finland.
The purpose of the meeting was to gather Polish, Swedish and Finnish NGOs to:
- exchange experiences of working with raising public awareness, policy and lobbying on Baltic Sea issues, and fisheries in particular,
- discuss how we can raise public awareness and influence decision-makers in Poland on Baltic Sea issues, in particular cod, overfishing and IUU, and
- discuss future cooperation across the Baltic Sea region on these issues.
The following NGOs were represented at the meeting:
Coalition Clean Baltic
Eko Unia
Finnish Association For Nature Conservation
Friends of Hel
Green Federation Gaja
Greenpeace Poland
Klub Gaja
Our Earth Foundation – Fundacja Nasza Ziemia
The Fisheries Secretariat (FISH)
WWF Poland
The two day workshop, which was held at the Hel Marine Station on the Hel peninsula outside of Gdansk, created good discussions and was given extra inspiration from speakers outside of the NGO community; Henrik Sparholt from ICES, the Polish-Swedish freelance journalist Magdalena Pramfelt and Ylva Rylander of Westander PR. The discussions were also given extra fuel by input from the researchers Krzysztof Skóra and Iwona Kuklik of Hel Marine Station.
“This was the first workshop of its kind, since it gathered Polish NGOs from all over the country, not only the coast, to talk about the Baltic Sea environment and fisheries issues in particular”, says Jacek Bozek of Klub Gaja, which is an environmental NGO based in southern Poland, in the mountainous areas close to the Czech boarder.
Jacek Bozek has been active in the Polish environmental movement for over 20 years, and gave a presentation on the development of past and present Polish environmental work. Klub Gaja has very actively driven campaigns on fresh water, anti nuclear, and the controversial Rospuda Valley highway construction, and is now ready to take part in work with issues concerning the Baltic Sea environment alongside with other Polish Environmental NGOs.
Another person that has a long history of active work within the Polish environmental movement is the former Polish vice minister of environment, Radoslaw Gawlik. Radoslaw, mostly known as Radek is the front person of Eko Unia, an environmental NGO currently launching the campaign “The Baltic Sea is in Poland”.
The campaign is travelling all over Poland raising awareness of the Baltic Sea and giving momentum to Baltic Sea environmental work. The campaign is currently establishing the “Partnership for the Baltic Sea”, which essentially is a co-management initiative built on the LEADER structure. Radek pinpoints that the only way to successfully improve the Baltic Sea environment is to bring together people who care and depend on the Baltic Sea, that is, both resource users and conservation interests.
Presentations of experiences of national and international Baltic Sea Environmental work was also given by Coalition Clean Baltic, WWF Sweden and The Finnish Association For Nature Conservation.
FISH would like to thank all the participants, and the presenters who made the effort to come, and who made the two day workshop a well spent time. We also want to thank Hel Marine Station for hosting the workshop at a wonderful and inspiring location by the Baltic Sea.
The presentations can be downloaded below.