At the end of April, the water sports scene came together at a Strategy meeting in Kiel a lot has happened since then. Under nationalpark-ostsee.de there is now an online platform on which all information relating to the planned project is to be collated. The primary aim is to network the water sports scene and also give people from outside the water sports sector the opportunity to obtain centralised information on the topic.
The website also contains a large press review, numerous television reports and interviews with politicians from different parties, in which their respective positions on the national park are made clear. Feel free to click in!
Baltic Sea National Park: Battle of the arguments
Environment Minister Tobias Goldschmidt had already presented initial plans for a "Baltic Sea National Park" in 2022. This is intended to connect the various nature and bird sanctuaries on the Baltic Sea and at the same time "deepen their protection", as the Green politician says - so that the Baltic Sea "will be better off again in the future".
In a national park, at least 50 per cent of the area would have to be left to nature - similar to the Wadden Sea National Park, which is around 300,000 hectares larger than the potential on the Baltic Sea. The ministry hopes that the new national park will provide "a real boost in attractiveness" for the Baltic Sea coast and "enormous opportunities for tourism and the economy", as Goldschmidt told the Schleswig-Holstein newspaper publisher.
Although the minister continues to emphasise that the results are open and that "the establishment of a national park does not have to entail any restrictions for sailors and other water sports enthusiasts", the question of how this can be implemented in a protected area with at least 50 percent no-use zones remains unanswered at present. Against this background, opposition to the project is currently forming.
Opponents of the national park argue that a national park would not necessarily improve the condition of the Baltic Sea, as the park would not solve the major problems (nutrient input, contaminated sites, ammunition remnants and shipping traffic). In addition, as the example of the Wadden Sea National Park has shown, there is the problem that individual spots within a national park could be closed to water sports enthusiasts by simple administrative acts (e.g. by a municipality). The national park administration could therefore close new areas to water sports enthusiasts at any time if, for example, there was only a suspicion that sports enthusiasts were disturbing birds or nature. Proving otherwise would be almost impossible for the surfing community and would involve lengthy court cases and expensive expert opinions.
Against this backdrop, many representatives from the tourism and business sectors as well as politicians from various parties are now in favour of abandoning the national park plans.
So it remains exciting to see what happens next. We'll keep you up to date!
