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Texts and Reports - Transboundary Water
Management: Experience in the Baltic Sea Region - Report
Vilnius Recommendations* Transboundary Water Management in the Baltic Sea Region
A. Overview
A. OVERVIEW1. Introduction. The Ministry of Environment of Lithuania warmly hosted an International Round Table on “Transboundary Water Management – Experience in the Baltic Sea Region” at the Villon Conference Center near Vilnius, from 6 to 9 June 1999. The Round Table was co-sponsored by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) of Germany; Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany; Federal Foreign Office (AA) of Germany; Development Policy Forum of the German Foundation for International Development (EF/DSE) and the World Bank.2. Petersberg Process. The Round Table was held as a part of the “Petersberg Process” which seeks to support integrated management of transboundary waters as a key element of the development process. This process was initiated at the International Dialogue Forum on “Global Water Politics – Cooperation for Transboundary Water Management” held in Petersberg, near Bonn in March 1998, with the support of the German Government and the World Bank. The outcome of that major meeting has been presented in the “Petersberg Declaration,” which focuses on the theme of “Water - A Catalyst for Cooperation.” The present Round Table also builds upon the findings of the earlier International Round Table on “Transboundary Water Management – Experience of International River and Lake Commissions,” held in Berlin during September 1998, the findings of which were issued as the “Berlin Recommendations.” The Round Tables have all emphasized the importance of sound environmental and natural resource management as a crucial precondition for sustainable development. B. BALTIC SEA REGION3. Linkage to HELCOM. The Round Table was held under the auspices of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) as an activity of the Program Implementation Task Force (PITF) for the “Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Program” (JCP). The Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, the Helsinki Convention, was signed in 1974 and entered into force in 1980, after ratification by all seven states. Through the Convention the Baltic Sea States established a commission, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, or HELCOM, which initially worked on an interim basis from 1974 to 1980. Since its founding, HELCOM has maintained a tradition of support for regional cooperation and joint efforts to address environmental issues. The Round Table was designed to provide a forum for selected experts involved in the management of rivers, lakes, wetlands and coastal lagoons to share experiences, identify lessons learned and propose actions to improve future cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. The recommendations of the Round Table will be used as a reference document for German Government and World Bank participation in international water resources activities and will be provided to HELCOM for consideration in the work of the appropriate subsidiary bodies, in particular PITF.4. Management of Transboundary Waters. Significant challenges remain in the management of transboundary waters—rivers, lakes, wetlands and coastal lagoons—in the eastern and southern portions of the Baltic Sea Region. This includes waters shared by Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic and Ukraine. They are particularly important since they include rivers draining large areas with diverse land uses that contribute to pollution of important coastal lagoons and the Baltic Sea itself. In many cases transboundary rivers and lakes are the primary sources for domestic, agricultural and industrial water supplies and are critical for maintenance of aquatic ecosystems. Wetlands and coastal lagoons, including meadows, are especially valuable due to their outstanding biodiversity and nutrient retention capacity. Maintenance of the environmental services that wetlands and coastal lagoons provide is critical for the preservation and improvement of ecological conditions within the Region. 5. Complementary Frameworks for Water Management. The management of transboundary waters in the Baltic Sea Region is mandated by three complementary frameworks that promote integrated approaches to water resources management: “Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area” (1974, 1992); United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) “Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes” (1996); and the European Union “Water Framework Directive (to be finalized in 2000).” The activities mandated under these frameworks are complemented by the Baltic 21 process and Vision and Strategies Around the Baltic (VASAB 2010), which support sustainable development and planning at the regional level. C. TRENDS AND EXPERIENCE IN TRANSBOUNDARY COOPERATION6. A Series of Transboundary Activities within the Region. Over the last 25 years HELCOM has actively promoted implementation of the Helsinki Convention, first through working on a shared marine environment, then expanding into the coastal zone and later, with the major political changes in the Region that began in the late 1980s, promoting preventive and curative measures in river basins within the entire Baltic Sea catchment area. An important mechanism for undertaking these actions has been the HELCOM coordinated JCP, which provides a cooperative framework for regional environmental management. The JCP has been successful in making the transition from planning to action and a wide range of activities is being undertaken in the basin to address priority issues, including control of point and non-point source pollution and management of coastal lagoons and wetlands. In order to achieve the long-term objective of the JCP, the “restoration of the ecological balance of the Baltic Sea,” various activities have been initiated for management of transboundary rivers, lakes, wetlands and coastal lagoons.7. Cooperation on Lakes. The oldest formal transboundary cooperation in the Region is the work of the Joint Finnish-Russian Commission on the Utilization of Frontier Watercourses that was initiated in 1964. This cooperation is well established and provides an excellent example of the benefits of sustained activities between two countries sharing common resources. In the case of Lake Peipsi/Pskovsko-Chudskoe shared between Estonia and Russia, formal cooperation was initiated in 1997. This has proven to be a dynamic program with major achievements since its initiation. Cooperation has included active participation in planning and implementation by the joint Estonia-Russian nongovernmental organization, the Center for Transboundary Cooperation. Regional experience has demonstrated the benefits associated with participation of an acceptable independent party in these processes. 8. Management of Rivers. Since 1989 there has been a substantial increase in initiatives concerning cooperative management of rivers within the Baltic Sea Region. These include current activities for the Bug River shared by Belarus, Poland and Ukraine; Daugava River/Zapadnaya Dvina shared by Belarus, Latvia and Russian Federation; Lielupe River shared by Latvia and Lithuania; Nemunas/Neman River shared by Belarus, Lithuania and Russian Federation; Oder/Odra River shared by Czech Republic, Germany and Poland; and the Venta River shared by Latvia and Lithuania. The status of development of these activities varies: the Oder/Odra River has a convention that has been ratified by the riparian countries and the European Union and has recently established a Secretariat in Wroclaw, Poland. The Bug River, which is the subject of a series of agreements between the riparians, has an ongoing assessment and monitoring program. The Daugava and Nemunas Rivers are in the early phases of developing cooperative programs. 9. Management of Polder Areas. A major emerging issue is the management of polder areas in deltas and lake margins, which may no longer be economical to keep in agriculture and should be considered for conversion to lower intensity agriculture or reflooded to recover wetland habitats. Many of these areas flood regularly; as a result, minimization of human uses may make economic sense. Even converting the lands to low intensity farming will result in economic losses when flooding occurs. Further, given their often high pumping costs, they would not be economical for agricultural production under market conditions. Conversion to wildlife habitat in a planned and staged manner should be considered as an element of the short- and medium-term land use management for these areas. At the same time, measures need to be identified to assist the current populations, either directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture, to find new employment opportunities. 10. Conservation of Coastal Lagoons and Wetlands. The HELCOM PITF Working Group on Management Plans for Coastal Lagoons and Wetlands (HELCOM PITF MLW) supported cooperative planning activities for the major transboundary lagoons, including the Kursiu Lagoon/Kurshskiy Zaliv shared by Lithuania and the Russian Federation, the Oder/Odra Lagoon shared by Germany and Poland, and the Vistula/Kaliningrad Lagoon shared by Poland and the Russian Federation. This work has been undertaken by locally based Area Task Teams, coordinated by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The planning process is at an advanced stage in many areas and important opportunities exist to make these plans operational, with adaptation for current legal, administrative and financial conditions. These areas are under high development pressure and the planning activities, when followed by implementation measures, can address the need for a balance between economic development, employment generation and environmental conservation. A major challenge identified by HELCOM is the need to extend such planning activities into the extensive interior wetlands that provide critical hydrological functions, including nutrient management and flood regulation, and important habitat for plants and animals. D. LESSONS LEARNED11. Lessons from Cooperation to Date. The key factors that have led to the success to date of implementation of the Baltic Sea Environment Program as outlined in the JCP, have been the development of a “Shared Vision” between the cooperating parties; a “Sustained Commitment” to the objectives of the JCP from political leaders and the public; and establishment of a “Broad-Based Partnership” that includes a wide range of parties from within and outside the Region working together. Review of lessons learned in transboundary water management confirmed the importance of these factors and identified a series of additional factors concerning use of cooperative processes, partnership formation, sound programs of action and knowledge sharing. Experience has demonstrated that there is no “best way” for cooperation or planning; rather a variety of approaches have been identified, which should be selected and applied on a case-by-case basis. Environmental cooperation often provides a starting point for multilateral, bilateral and/or local level relationships between countries, local governments and/or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). A key concept that has been identified by JCP actions to date is the importance of “making the impossible — possible.”12. Cooperative Processes. Central to the successful development and operation of programs and agreements for the management of transboundary waters are:
E. DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK FOR COOPERATIONLinking Individuals and Institutions16. Creating A “Spirit of Cooperation.” This requires institutions and individuals involved in these processes to commit themselves to working with others in a flexible and open manner on a sustained basis. The process begins with information sharing and joint objective setting among the cooperating institutions and organizations. This positive approach, which can provide a critical factor for success of cooperative programs, should address a series of practical issues to place activities in the context of broader concerns of the citizens in the areas subject to special management programs:
17. Working at the Drainage Basin Level. Future work within the Baltic Sea Region should seek to address management of the entire drainage basin at a variety of levels, using an ecosystem approach. The various conventions and initiatives should be viewed as complementary frameworks to promote cooperation within the Baltic Sea Region. The Round Table noted the experience of Canada and the United States in cooperative management of the Great Lakes as an important example of basin level management of a comparable scale with a similar complexity of environmental and economic concerns. In undertaking this work it is important to address a series of issues:
18. Addressing Concerns from the Top and Bottom. The effective management of transboundary waters requires adoption and use of both “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches on a case-by-case basis to identify issues, develop solutions, undertake actions and monitor their impacts:
Developing Frameworks for Transboundary Management 19. Important Factors in the Process. The establishment of transboundary water resources management frameworks requires the development of legal instruments, recognition of an extended timeframe for addressing institutional issues and adoption of arrangements for funding of transboundary management bodies:
21. Integration into Investment Policies and Priorities. Environmental action plans should be integrated into national and local investment policies and priorities. Development of economic policies should include clear incentives for environmental management. An integrated approach to investments allows for effective and timely application of resources from national and international sources. To achieve this, particular attention should be given to planning outreach efforts to raise public awareness in support of such initiatives as well as to informing all stakeholders of the positive economic benefits of cooperation and the incentives for setting up and maintaining the institutional framework, management actions and investments needed to make achievement of joint environmental goals possible. Promoting Management under the HELCOM Process 22. Management of the Baltic Sea Drainage Basin. HELCOM should take a “proactive role” in addressing the management of the Baltic Sea drainage basin as directed under Article 6 of the Helsinki Convention of 1992. In undertaking this work, HELCOM would broadly facilitate implementation of the UN/ECE “Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes.” It would also support planning and management actions consistent with the principles of the European Union “Water Framework Directive.” Such an approach would allow the work of HELCOM to more effectively address land based sources of degradation throughout the drainage basin in order to support these efforts in a cooperative manner with PITF member countries, including both Contracting and non-Contracting parties to the Convention. It would also allow HELCOM to better contribute to implementation of the “Global Program of Action for Prevention of Pollution from Land Based Sources” (1995). 23. Monitoring to Support Management. One of the key elements of regional and national efforts to strengthen institutional capacity to manage transboundary waters should be the setting up of an adequate monitoring and data management and distribution system. This should be able to provide reliable data, collected in a comparable manner, to the participating institutions, in quantity sufficient for management decisions. Monitoring is an expensive activity that can easily become self-justified, leading to activities that go beyond what is necessary to support management, with corresponding excessive costs. Therefore monitoring should cover—and be limited to—the essential parameters needed to assess the situation of the water bodies to be managed and their “hot spots,” as well as the impact of the actions undertaken to correct them. It should also be useful to the general public and is an important mechanism for both broad-based participation and a means to make environmental managers more accountable. F. WORKING TOGETHER AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL24. A Network of Partners. Key to the long-term success of an integrated approach is establishment of a network of parties drawn from different levels of governance and civil society. In this context, it is anticipated that the European Union would play an expanded role in the future given the accession process in many countries in transition. The international financial institutions participating in the PITF—Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO), Nordic Investment Bank (EIB), and World Bank—would continue to play an active role in the JCP.25. Transboundary Water Management Program. The work program of the PITF should be reviewed to assess the potential establishment of a transboundary water management network to address issues related to rivers, lakes, interior and coastal wetlands, and coastal lagoons. This would complement current efforts for some major lakes, as well as those for coastal lagoons and wetlands. It is anticipated that work on interior wetlands would be an activity addressed within the work program of the restructured HELCOM. This work could be based on the experience gained from the HELCOM PITF Working Group on Coastal Lagoons and Wetlands. These activities should be fully coordinated with other ongoing actions for river basin, lake, wetland and coastal lagoon management. A major concern is that water resources and environmental management be continuously viewed as issues that have both upstream and downstream perspectives. 26. Expanded Management Role of Local Authorities. Local governments are increasingly being empowered by expanding roles through the decentralization process in many countries in the Region. These include environmental and land use planning responsibilities and provision of basic services that are devolving from central national agencies, such as water supply, wastewater and solid waste management, some with an impact that exceeds their respective territory. In this process, local authorities become key stakeholders and partners in management activities and mechanisms must be devised to better involve them. The Union of Baltic Cities (UBC) could be used as an important mechanism in this context to identify lessons learned and disseminate good practices between municipal governments in the Region. 27. Integration into Spatial Management Systems. The management of transboundary water resources should be undertaken from the perspective of their integration into spatial management systems, where all hydrological, ecological and land use aspects are jointly considered. This represents a major departure from the common approach, in which different types of water bodies have traditionally been managed using different objectives and techniques that result from historical distribution of competencies among managing institutions and the need to address different problems and demands. Linkages should be developed as appropriate with the activities supported by VASAB 2010 at the regional level. 28. Strengthening Institutions. Effective transboundary water resources management depends on the combined involvement and participation of institutions at different levels of governance and society. This includes international bodies, national institutions, regional and local governments, private sector and NGOs, which should have the capacity to understand and support these initiatives, as well as to benefit from them and make use of their results. Such capacity does not necessarily exist everywhere within the Region. This is especially the case with regional and local governments that are assuming larger roles through the decentralization process. In order to address these demands, measures should be taken for institutional strengthening and human resources development. It should be recognized that the roles of various parties may change over the course of a program’s design and implementation and provisions should be made to accommodate this. 29. Sharing of Information and Experience. Institutional strengthening efforts should include dissemination and sharing of information on the current situation of and expected benefits from cooperative management, to make institutions real stakeholders in the process and mobilize their political support and feedback. Establishment of mechanisms to facilitate sharing of experiences and networking among institutions should be considered, as well as some means of formal training for local staff and officials who may be faced with decisions for which they may not yet be prepared. Measures should also be taken to provide an opportunity for structured professional opportunities to learn from established cooperative programs such as that of the Joint Finnish-Russian Commission on the Utilization of Frontier Watercourses. Public outreach and consultation should be viewed as a potential element of all transboundary planning and management programs. 30. Important Role of NGOs. Nongovernmental organizations are called to fulfill several important roles in the development of transboundary water resources management. NGOs can act as facilitators for outreach activities aimed at increasing public participation and involvement. They can also facilitate implementation of certain elements of management frameworks for which they can mobilize expertise, and provide independent judgment and long-term commitment that is different from the support normally obtained from professional consultant companies. However, the most important role for NGOs is to act as informal auditors and spokespersons of the management initiative, channeling feedback from civil society, and for this role it is essential that they have access to proper information and the capacity to technically interpret it. 31. Public Participation. The “Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making Process and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters” signed in Århus, Denmark in 1998, is a critical tool to support public involvement and provides the basis to facilitate it in establishment of transboundary management initiatives and in their accountability to the society they are intended to serve. Public participation and understanding of the objectives, costs and expected benefits of transboundary water management is essential to mobilize political support and, ultimately, secure the funding and financial commitment necessary to make it effective. Mechanisms to facilitate public participation should be incorporated into the design phases as well as actual implementation, so that society participates in the discussions and planning process as much as possible. 32. Identification of Costs and Benefits. The identification of costs and benefits and sharing of this information with society, in a broad sense, provides an improved basis for decision-making and creates an incentive for cooperation. This allows political leaders and the public to better understand the management issues that require action, the impacts from not acting and an enhanced understanding of the role and need of commissions or management bodies as well as the types of policies and investments that should be made to address priority issues. The identification and assessment of costs and evaluation of benefits and their dissemination should be a priority action to be undertaken on a regular basis. 33. Establishment of “Water Councils.” As an effective mechanism for public participation, consideration should be given, on a case-by-case basis, to the establishment of “Water Councils” as a broad-based approach for cooperative management of individual water bodies. This approach, which involves participation of national and local government, the private sector, NGOs and civil society, would be especially useful for the management of rivers, lakes, wetlands and coastal lagoons. It also provides an important mechanism to link parties that may be operating under different legal, administrative and planning systems. Priority should be given to testing this approach on a pilot basis at selected locations of a variety of physical sizes and management complexity. The results of these pilot activities should be carefully evaluated and the lessons learned from these activities disseminated through the PITF. 34. Role of International Cooperation. An important function of international cooperation is to accelerate the rate at which activities are undertaken and to provide opportunities for the transfer of experience between regions and countries. International cooperation is essential in the start-up phases, when civil society and the authorities have not fully identified the potential benefits and costs of transboundary water resources management. However, international cooperation should not substitute for the necessary regional, national and local commitment and funding, once the initiative is underway and adequate management capacity has been developed and agreed by the contracting parties. When activities are being undertaken, international cooperation should go beyond mobilization of resources and include the exchange of lessons learned. Support should be provided for development of added capacity among cooperating regional bodies and national organizations to address new challenges that could emerge. 35. Responsibility for the Process. It is recognized that responsibility
for the management of transboundary waters should rest with a number of
cooperating parties at the regional, national and local levels. Management
bodies should be streamlined as much as possible at all levels, not only
to reduce costs, but also to avoid substituting for the necessary involvement
of stakeholders in the management process, including civil society. Securing
this involvement should be a priority objective of the planning and implementation
process. The participation of outside parties should be at the invitation
of the cooperating parties and reflect their priorities and interests in
accessing expertise
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