EUCC BALTIC OFFICE
Egidijus Jurkus
Rolandas Puidokas
TRAINING MATERIALS FOR INTERACTIVE COMPETENCE BUILDING SEMINARS
FOR LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES TO REINFORCE TW
ENVIRONMENTAL INTEGRITY
Klaipėda, December 2011
Goal of the competence building seminars: The overall goal of the competence building seminars is in
building appropriate competence of local and regional authorities in the management and maintenance
of the environmental integrity of the cross-border SBTW areas, mainly, decision-making and crossborder co-operation on local and regional levels taking into account the stipulations of the EU WFD and
MSP, interests of the authorities and communities in the adjacent country, as well as physical and
environmental peculiarities of the management of the South Baltic Transitional Waters.
Operational objectives:
1. Raising awareness of the target groups on the key challenges and issues of the transboundary
transitional waters‘ management and informing on the best approaches to address the
challenges.
2. Building knowledge of the target groups on the stipulations of the EU WFD and MSP in the
cross-border transitional waters and the physical and environmental peculiarities of the
management of the South Baltic Transitional Waters.
3. Informing the target groups on the cross-border co-operation planning and management
procedures, processes and best practices for the South Baltic Transitional Waters implied by the
stipulations of the EU WFD and MSP.
4. Developing understanding of the target groups on the key factors, goals and financial
sustainability of the transitional water management.
5. Building capacities of the target groups in strengthening cross-border partnerships and the
cross-border information exchange with the partner institutions.
Target groups: 5-8 participants in every interactive competence building seminar on each side of every
target area (i.e., 5-8 participants on the Swedish side of the Sound, 5-8 on the Danish side, etc.). The
participants should represent local and regional authorities: environmental decision-makers and
technical staff of municipal and county levels, staff of environmental protection and nature conservation
agencies etc. Yet, there is no fixed prescription who must be involved into the competence building
seminars. SBTW Stakeholder Body representatives are very welcome! Attendance of the participants to
the event must be documented by signed participants’ lists, detailed event programmes and photos
from the events proving the adequate number of the participants. The participants’ lists must contain a
precise description of the contents, date and place of the event, as well as the EU flag, South Baltic
Programme and ARTWEI project logos.
Duration of the seminar: There is no fixed prescription regarding the duration of the seminar. Typically,
the seminar is shorter than the courses, i.e., taking one or two full days, or being organized “lunch-tolunch”. There could be organized a single event for the entire cross-border target area, but in that case
the translation should be ensured and there should be 10-15 participants representing both sides of the
TW area more or less equally.
Methodology: The capacity building should be based on an interactive training following “learning by
doing” and “experts to experts” principles, when all participants are involved into the common action,
mutually benefiting from the upgraded skills. This methodology of the capacity building will closely
follow the “interactive think-tank” approach, which was developed by the Milieukontakt Oosteuropa for
the institutional strengthening of the Central and Eastern European institutions and successfully tested
by the EUCC Baltic Office. We recommend working in small groups (typically no more than 2-4
participants plus an instructor), or even individually, when every participant has sufficient number of
personal contact hours with the instructor. Different groups of trainees with different initial knowledge
and competence could attend not necessary all, but the most relevant training sessions of the event(s).
Likewise, every partner conducting the seminar is free to choose, which topics are the most relevant to
the particular SBTW area, and which topics could be skipped out from the contents of the training
event(s). Therefore, the provided below Guidelines for the Contents of the Interactive Competence
Building Seminar are only tentative. The key criterion for the selection of topics and themes is meeting
the operational objectives of the competence building.
Guidelines for the Contents of the Interactive Competence Building Seminar
Based on the knowledge available from the Good Practice Code of Conduct, the attendees of the
seminar should be educated on the following topics:
Topic 1. Introducing transitional waters (based on Code of Conduct Chapter 1):
1.1. Introduction to the topic.
1.2. EU Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive and variation in
definition and delimitation of transitional waters in the Baltic Sea area.
1.3. Diversity and geographical distribution of transitional waters in Europe.
1.4. Importance of transitional waters to the society and threats to their environmental integrity.
1.5. Conclusions of the topic.
Topic 2. Ecosystem goods and services of transitional waters (based on Code of Conduct Chapter 2)
2.1. Introduction to the topic.
2.2. Grouping the goods and services delivered by the transitional water ecosystems.
2.3. Difference between the goods and services delivered by different types of the transitional
water ecosystems.
2.4. Differences between the linear and areal types of littoral ecosystems of transitional waters and
their goods and services.
2.5. Elicitation of non-use values of the habitats of the transitional waters.
2.6. Causes and effects for the degradation of transitional waters’ ecosystem goods and services.
2.7. Mutual benefits of conservation and maintenance of waters’ ecosystem non-use and use
values and services.
2.8. Conclusions of the topic.
Topic 3. Management challenges for the south Baltic transboundary transitional waters (based on
Code of Conduct Chapter 3)
3.1. Introduction to the topic.
3.2. Threat of pollution and contamination from human activities.
3.3. Threat of invasive flora and fauna species.
3.4. Increasing vulnerability of the transitional waters to the climate change.
3.5. Threat of technological hazards and major hydrographical alterations.
3.6. Maintenance of biodiversity, migration corridors for fish and birds, and robust stocks of living
resources.
3.7. Cross-border differences in decision-taking and spatial planning systems.
3.8. Absence of coherent cross-border information exchange, environmental monitoring and risk
prevention frameworks.
3.9. Conclusions of the topic.
Topic 4. Key issues in the transboundary reinforcement of the transitional waters’ environmental
integrity (based on Code of Conduct Chapter 4)
4.1. Introduction to the topic.
4.2. The need to manage a transitional water body as an integral geographical entity and the need
to link its management with the one of the catchment area and the adjacent nearshore.
4.3. Efforts to maintain national planning, management and monitoring systems and transboundary
efforts to reinforce the transitional waters’ environmental integrity.
4.4. Nature conservation and economic development in the transitional water areas.
4.5. Top-down decision taking on the national and regional levels and the need to strengthen public
participation considering the issues of the transboundary relevance.
4.6. Conclusions of the topic.
Topic 5. Towards a strategy for the reinforcement of the transitional waters’ environmental integrity
(based on Code of Conduct Chapter 5)
5.1. Introduction to the topic.
5.2. Linkage of the transitional waters’ management to river basin and coastal management.
5.3. Geographical scope of the transitional waters’ management.
5.4. Thematic scope of the management of transitional waters.
5.5. Planning process of the management of transitional waters.
5.6. Development of the transitional waters’ management strategy.
5.7. Conclusions of the topic.
Topic 6. Planning for the management of transboundary transitional waters (based on Code of
Conduct Chapter 6)
6.1. Introduction to the topic.
6.2. Initiation of the planning process for the transitional waters’ management.
6.3. Analysis of the existing situation.
6.4. In-depth analysis of social and economic conditions and trends.
6.5. Factors, problems and goals of the transitional water management.
6.6. Strategy formulation.
6.7. Conclusions of the topic.
Topic 7. Information management in the reinforcement of the trans-boundary transitional waters’
environmental integrity (based on Code of Conduct Chapters 7 and 8)
7.1. Introduction to the topic.
7.2. Regional information system.
7.3. Cross-border coastal databases.
7.4. Cross-border Geographical Information System.
7.5. Cross-border information exchange and awareness building.
7.6. Conclusions of the topic.
Topic 8. Strategic Environmental Assessment in a transboundary transitional water body (based on
Code of Conduct Chapter 9)
8.1. Introduction to the topic.
8.2. The purpose of the transboundary SEA.
8.3. Key stages of the transboundary SEA process in the case of transitional waters.
8.4. Triggering the transboundary SEA process in the case of transitional waters.
8.5. Scoping and environmental reporting.
8.6. Facilitating public participation.
8.7. Transboundary consultations.
8.8. Conclusions of the topic.
Topic 9. Financial sustainability of the transboundary co-operation in the transitional water
management (based on Code of Conduct Chapter 10)
9.1. Introduction to the topic.
9.2. Core support to the management of transitional waters by governments and global donors.
9.3. Gathering information on the economic benefits of the transitional waters to the society.
9.4. Involvement of the private sector and society.
9.5. Can tourism ensure financial sustainability of the management of transitional waters?
9.6. Prudence is the key to financial sustainability of the management of transitional waters.
9.7. Donors should extend aid cycles for transboundary co-operation projects.
9.8. Conclusions of the topic.
Topic 10. Research, monitoring, evaluation and review (based on Code of Conduct Chapter 11)
10.1. Introduction to the topic.
10.2. Research and Monitoring.
10.3. Review.
10.4. Evaluation.
10.5. Conclusions of the topic.