Plan Bothnia
The Plan Bothnia project, coordinated by the HELCOM Secretariat, tested transboundary Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) in the Baltic Sea. The project used the Bothnian Sea area between Sweden and Finland as a case study of Baltic transboundary MSP.
Plan Bothnia project was a Baltic Sea MSP “preparatory action” funded by EU Commission DG MARE (budget 0,5 M EUR) under the EU Integrated Maritime Policy, and run 18 months between 2. December 2010 and 1 June 2012.
The final result was an MSP document “Planning the Bothnian Sea” which was created as a collective effort by six partners and numerous participants from regional and national authorities in Sweden and Finland.
The plan was translated into Vietnamese in October 2013 by Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hai and Mr. Pham Minh Hien from the Vietnamese national planning institution Development Strategy Institute (DSI), under the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam.
It held five meetings with partners and invited participants focusing on the different steps needed to reach the final goal–the pilot plan for the Bothnian Sea. In addition, the project organized two mid-project dissemination events open to all (late September 2011 and spring 2012) as well as final seminars (22-23 May 2012).
The Lead Partner of this project was the regional Baltic Sea Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) Secretariat. Overall project coordination was the task of Mr. Hermanni Backer (application phase and Dec. 2010-March 2012) and Mr. Manuel Frias (March 2012-May 2012).
In addition, six partners ensured the successful implementation of this initiative: Swedish Board of Fisheries (SWE) (on 1. July 2011 Fiskeriverket was dissolved and the unit involved in Plan Bothnia was transferred to the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences -SLU); Finnish Environment Institute (FIN); Centre for Maritime Studies (FIN); Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (SWE); VASAB (International); Nordregio (International)
ALL Data available
All data collected and used in the project can be downloaded from the HELCOM metadata catalog.
In addition to being a state-of-the-art example of transboundary MSP, the project has made efforts to make the plan documents accessible, inspiring, and beautiful.
The print version of Planning the Bothnian Sea, released in 2012, was selected “Book of the Year” and also won the price of the best publication out of 199 in the Antalis Design and Print Awards 2012 competition in Finland.
The book won further a silver price (Hopeahuippu) in the category books in “the Best of the year competition”. This is the most prestigious design award competition in Finland and is organized by Grafia, the professional guild of designers.
Finally, in the world-renowned design award competition D&AD Design Awards 2012 the book won an “In the Book” award. This price means that Planning the Bothnian Sea was among the best book designs in 2012.
The Book received these prices mainly for its exceptionally clear presentation of technical and complex information.
The blog posts in the former webpage planbothnia.org are now hosted in this site.
