Programme to promote the recycling of nutrients and to improve the status of the Archipelago Sea 2012–2015
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© Pekka Salminen
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The aim of the programme to promote the recycling of nutrients and improve the status of the Archipelago Sea is to ensure that significantly lower amounts of nutrients leak into the Baltic Sea in the future. This Ministry of the Environment programme is also seeking to promote the use, in production, of various by-products containing nutrients. At the same time, we must prepare for depletion of phosphorus resources and future rises in fertiliser prices.
Finland's Baltic Sea Commitment
The Helsinki Commission included the Archipelago Sea in its hot spot list because of nutrient loads from agriculture. This list pinpoints the worst polluters of the Baltic Sea. The aim of the programme is to promote the Baltic Sea Commitment made by the Finnish government at the Baltic Sea Action Summit in 2010. At the Summit Finland committed itself to intensive measures, in order to achieve good water quality status in the Archipelago Sea by 2020. At present, the water quality of the Archipelago Sea is mainly poor. In addition, Finland undertook to become a model region in terms of the recycling of nutrients.
The programme to promote the recycling of nutrients promotes measures aimed at
- economic and efficient use of nutrients,
- minimising the amount of biowaste and the nutrients recycled with it,
- efficient and safe recycling of nutrients and
- collection of nutrients from water bodies, for nutrient recovery.
In addition, the programme provides funding for projects that seek to promote the recycling of nutrients, reduce the Baltic Sea nutrient load and enhance water protection in agriculture, within the catchments of the Archipelago Sea and the Bothnian Sea. For the programme's first round of applications, 22 project applications were submitted. The applications covered all of the main themes, with nutrient collection from water bodies for recovery being the most popular.
A monitoring group will promote and monitor the implementation of the measures.
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