On 8-9 May, FISH organised a workshop in Warsaw, Poland, to address current NGO work efforts with fisheries in the Baltic Sea.
The programme of the workshop included:
- Discussions on strengthening and broadening the Swedish-Polish and the regional cooperation on marine and fisheries issues.
- Information-sharing about ongoing and planned activities and current fisheries policy issues.
- Discussions on how to raise public awareness and influence decision makers in the Baltic Sea region on issues such as the state of fish stocks, the need for improved control and enforcement, and better protection of the marine environment.
- Exchanging ideas for future activities around the management of Baltic salmon.
Special guests at the workshop were Rita Kamedula – Tomaszewska, vice director of the fisheries department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Maciej Trzeciak, head of the Environmental Conservation Unit within the Ministry of Environment.
Speakers from outside of the NGO community were invited to inspire the discussions. The journalist Ewa Podolska of TOK FM radio spoke about how to establish good contacts with media. Monika Perek of 180 degrees PR gave a presentation about how to inluence decision makers, and Henrik Österblom of Baltic Nest Institute discussed current changes in the Baltic Sea ecosystem.
There were over 30 participants representing various environmental NGOs (mainly from Poland, Sweden, Finland) and observers from various international foundations, including:
- Klub Gaja
- Eko Unia
- Green Federation Gaja
- Our Earth Foundation
- Polish Ecological Club
- Hel Marine Station
- Association of Rega River
- Association of Ina and Gowienica River
- Wedkarski Swiat’ (Angler’s World) Magazine
- WWF Poland
- Coalition Clean Baltic
- Swedish Society for Nature Conservation
- Finnish Association for Nature Conservation
- WWF Sweden
- Marine Fisheries Institute in Gdynia
- Baltic Nest Institute
- 180 degrees Public Relations
- TOK FM Radio
- PEW Environment Group
- Oak Foundation
Presentations from the workshop can be downloaded below.