MUNIMAP

Baltic Sea Munitions Remediation Roadmap

Background

Historical contamination of the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak by both chemical and conventional dumped munitions remains a serious threat to the marine ecosystem and a hindrance to maritime economy. Authorities responsible for the management of marine areas are facing many obstacles when it comes to remediation of these munitions. Not only are they operating in an unclear legal environment and frequently have neither resources nor an official mandate to deal with the problem, but there are also many uncertainties about how to tackle the problem in practical terms without harming people and environment.

Objectives

The vision of the MUNIMAP project is a Baltic Sea in which submerged munitions are a controlled threat, managed with precaution and removed according to needs in a coordinated, safe and environmentally friendly way.
The overarching aim of the project is to assist the authorities responsible for the management of marine areas with the build-up of legal and administrative know-how base allowing to start remediating submerged munitions in the Baltic Sea area.

Approach

MUNIMAP will activate, speed up and coordinate the national processes related to managing submerged munitions by setting up a modular, adaptable roadmap towards Baltic Sea munitions remediation. The different elements of the Roadmap such as policy recommendations, IT solutions for site prioritization, monitoring strategy and innovative, cost-efficient and environmentally friendly remediation methods will be developed and evaluated together with their user groups. The MUNIMAP pilot activities will showcase multiple stages of the remediation process, starting with locating and identifying the munitions, via risk assessment, site prioritization, remediation and monitoring, utilization and evaluation of results.

Project partners and HELCOM’s role

Lead Partner: Institute of Oceanology of Polish Academy of Sciences (IOPAS)

HELCOM will inter alia identify knowledge gaps and needs, as well as ensure adherence with the objectives of the 2021 BSAP and in particular actions S34 and S35. During and after the project, HELCOM will act as a vehicle for transferring the project outputs together with its policy recommendations and BAT/ BEP into the HELCOM framework and the legal regulatory set-ups of its Contracting Parties, as appropriate.

Funding

Interreg Baltic Sea Region, total budget 3.88 million €

Project duration

3 years (March 2024 – February 2027)

Website

https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/munimap/

Contacts

Markus Helavuori

HELCOM Professional Secretary
markus.helavuori@helcom.fi