Foundation

The official name of the Foundation for a Living Baltic Sea has been translated into all 14 languages in the Baltic Sea catchment basin. For the sake of unity, the Living Baltic Sea Foundation works in public under the name Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG).

Rules of the Foundation for a Living Baltic Sea

1. Name and Domicile
The name of the Foundation for a Living Baltic Sea, in Swedish Stiftelsen för ett levande Östersjön, in Russian Фонд "Живая Балтика", in German Stiftung Lebende Ostsee, in Estonian Elava Läänemere fond, in Latvian Fonds dzīvībai Baltijas Jura, in Lithuanian Gyvos Baltijos juros fondas, in Norwegian Stiftelsen Den Levende Østersjøen, in Danish Foreningen for en Levende Østersø, in Polish Fundacja Nadzieja Dla Bałtyku, in Belarusian ундацыя "Жывая Балтыка" in Czech Nadace pro živé Baltské moře, in Slovak Nadácia na ochranu Baltického mora and in Ukrainian Фонд "Жива Балтика", and its is domiciled in Helsinki.

2. Purpose
The Foundation aims to support and promote nature and human welfare, and thus preserve and promote the Finnish cultural heritage.

3. Implementation of Purpose

The Foundation:

1) Distributes grants for scientific work that promotes the objectives of the Foundation. The Foundation also helps for purpose of scientific work related to funding, the existing use of research as well as investigating the effects of measures taken;

2) Carries out activities that provide information and increase awareness of the Foundation

3) Facilitates and coordinates the financing for purpose-related projects;

4) Accelerates and contributes to the purpose of different actors to cooperate and promote the flow of information and international relations;

5) Enhances forces in society by combining and collecting the necessary resources, finances, business resources, policy making and implementation and the resources of different sectors, best practices and opportunities for practical purposes, to achieve the objectives;

6) Lastly, contributes to the realization of the purpose of a limited extent in other similar ways.

Baltic Sea Action Group's Mission

“A holistic overview and well targeted concrete actions”

The Baltic Sea can not wait: world's most polluted sea is at the brink of terminal care and needs concrete actions as soon as possible in order to survive. All possible parties of the society are needed for this rescue mission and Baltic Sea Action Group's role is to assemble these parties.

BSAG's operation methods are innovative, aimed towards concrete solutions and based on extensive co-operation. The foundation acts as an initiator and/or a catalyst in parallel and concrete projects.

BSAG is neutral. We have a wide variety of tools in use: political forces regardless of political views or ambitions, heads of states from the entire Baltic Sea area, civil servants and authorities, NGOs, private citizens, companies and prestigious business executives.

BSAG brings the know-how and resources of the private sector to concrete actions throughout the Baltic Sea area. It is natural that the businesses that have operations somehow related to the Baltic Sea also engage in the preservation process. Both parties, the Baltic Sea and the businesses, benefit from the co-operation.

In other words BSAG efficiently combines the resources and opportunities that the public, private and civil sectors can provide. Our actions are based on the latest research findings. BSAG accelerates the implementation of research results into practical actions and thus creates new knowledge and new research questions. This furthermore contributes to the restoration operations.

A shortcut from science to practice

Significance of research to BSAG

Science and research are closely linked to BSAG’s operations and act as one of the corner stones of our operations. The actions taken in order to preserve and rescue the Baltic Sea, which BSAG will develop even further, must all have scientific validity and relevance. By ensuring scientific validity proper actions can be taken and we can be sure that the research information regarding specific actions is adequate in order to execute concrete projects.

According to experts BSAG’s projects are preservation and rescue projects that are scientifically justified, primary and cost-efficient.

BSAG can in turn, acting as an active link between the research community, decision-makers and businesses, provide researchers knowledge of what type of research information is needed. For example what sort of information do the decision-makers need in their work on behalf the Baltic Sea. It is most likely that new interesting research questions and needs will emerge as BSAG fully begins its operations.

BSAG's pool of experts

In September 2007 a workshop was arranged where a prestigious group of Baltic Sea experts gathered to reflect the actions and specific target areas that would constitute as most important and efficient in the preservation of the Baltic Sea. The workshop was arranged by Johanna Ikävalko who is responsible of the scientific background work at BSAG. This workshop was a foundation for a vast fast-lane network of experts which enables BSAG to consult, rapidly if needed, several Baltic Sea experts.