Sustainable lifestyle in the Baltic Sea Region

Background

The work of the thematic session "sustainable lifestyle in the Baltic Sea Region" builds on the conclusions reached by the Environmental Conference of the II Baltic NGO Forum, held in St. Petersburg in April 2002.

In the conclusions participating environmental organisations listed several problems in the Baltic Sea region that raise their special concern. The environmental NGOs wanted to draw special attention to the following issues: biological diversity; forestry, agriculture and fishery; energy production, transport sector, unsustainable consumption patterns; environmental education; chemical munitions; international agreements and national legislation, proper application of Environmental Impact Assessment, access to environmental information and assaults upon environmental activists.

After the St. Petersburg Forum, many significant environmental meetings have taken place, one of the most important being the United Nations' World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in August 2002. This is why we have decided to look into the previously enlisted questions through a framework of sustainable development.

The strength of the Baltic NGO Forum lies in the fact that it provides meeting place for representatives of NGOs from all over the Baltic Sea area and from all sectors. Turku Forum organisers have wanted to underline the fact that NGOs from various fields get together in the meeting. All NGOs will be given the chance of participating in any thematic session. This means that in this "environmental" workshop on sustainable lifestyles will participate not only environmental organisations, but hopefully also NGOs representing social sector, human rights etc.

Our session is called "sustainable lifestyles", which indicates our wish to integrate environmental questions into the everyday choices made by politician, businessmen and ordinary citizens.

Structure of the session

This thematic session consists of a keynote speech, a panel discussion and three discussion groups.

The suggested keynote speech topic is "possibilities for real cooperation on promoting sustainable development in the Baltic Sea region". The speech will be aim is to give an introduction to the theme sustainable lifestyles, summing up the present state of sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region ,and visioning the future challenges for the region in this perspective and analysing the obstacles and possibilities to move towards sustainable lifestyles.

The ideas brought up in the keynote speech will be further developed and commented in the panel discussion under the title "Baltic Agenda 21; how it has succeeded in promoting sustainable development".

The panel, bringing together representatives from different sectors together, will talk about Baltic Agenda 21 which is a sustainable development programme in the Baltic Sea Region. Following topics should be discussed:

• "what is the NGOs' role in promoting and developing the Baltic Agenda 21 process
• "what kind of an influence Baltic Agenda 21 has on Baltic citizens' lifestyles
• "has the Baltic Agenda 21 reached the goals it has? What should be done in order to make the programme effective?

The panel discussion's goal is to give food for thought and for further discussions. We would also like to see the panel as a place for exchanging experience and knowledge of different sectors.

After the panel the thematic session group will be divided into three discussion groups. These groups will provide the participating NGOs a possibility of sharing practical experience from their work and projects. Every group will be given a topic for discussion and there will be a short case study - a NGO presentation - about the subject. NGOs will present their work or projects that have been carried out concerning the topic of the discussion group.

The topics of the three groups are: Nature Conservation in the Baltic Sea Region, Oil and the Baltic Sea and Production and consumption patterns in the Baltic Sea Region.

More

There is also a possibility of having more discussions the following day. On Saturday morning there will be time for different interest group meetings.

The aim of this thematic session is to get a snapshot on the current situation of the region in search of sustainable development. Do we have a common view - across the region and sectors - on the issues? What are the next steps needed in following the path to sustainable future?

In Turku Forum we would like to offer You a chance of sharing your experience as well as hopes and visions with other NGO actors. The Forum should be a place to get a bigger picture on what is going on in the Baltic Sea Region in the NGO sector. Hopefully the Turku NGO Forum will help us concentrate our efforts in certain priotised areas. Maybe it will be also possible to find some new and creative ways of addressing the problems NGOs encounter in their work.

In the end of this session we do not aim to present common declaration or demands of the participants, however, if common understanding prevails and there's need for declaration, this can be made. After the session organisers will produce short conclusions of the session, and later on seminar report will be published. This report will include the list of projects introduced in the working groups. Hopefully this list could be developed to the database of NGO activities across the region.