BSR MARITIME HERITAGE ACTION PLAN (MHAP) WITHIN THE PRO BSR PROJECT After the meeting in Gdansk on 20.11.2014, this draft paper was presented to the Pro BSR project partners during the meeting in Copenhagen 26.11.2014. In the meeting in Gdansk former and current chairmen of the WG on Coastal Culture and Maritime Heritage and the Chair of the WG on Underwater Heritage took part. It was agreed that in MHAP we will focus on broad subject of maritime landscape of the BSR, which according to scientific definition consist of the whole network of old and new sailing routs with ports and harbours along the coast, related constructions and remains of human activity, underwater and terrestrial. In another word, it mirrors entire range of maritime economies and topography of the waterfront area. In the years 2015-2020 MHAP will focus on the following topics linked to the policies in BSR: 1. European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region including relevant flagship projects 2. Maritime Spatial planning; the EU Directive Establishing a framework of the underwater heritage spatial planning launched 21. July 2014 3. UNESCO Convention on the protection of the underwater cult. Heritage 2001 (wreck in the BSR appointed as UNESCO World Heritage; USHER project got financing from the PSF 4. Involvement of both WGs in creation of scientific program(s) of future BSR Fora 5. Other cultural activities connected to coastal and maritime heritage in the BSR
Introduction The Working Group on Coastal Heritage of the BSR was established in 2001 and involves members from national maritime institutions in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden. The Working Group initiated the 1st Cultural Heritage Forum in Gdansk on April 3 6, 2003. For this occasion, it produced the poster exhibition Baltic Lights a guarantee of safe passage, which was spread in many copies to the participating countries. As a result of this successful exhibition project, the Working Group launched the Baltic Harbours exhibition in 2007. The Historic harbours exhibition presents the history of harbour development, expansion, efficiency and diversity. It comprised 12 posters, which were printed in 500 sets. They are distributed to museums, cultural institutions, schools and libraries around the Baltic Sea. 2 nd exhibition: Historic Harbours: Gateway to the Future was launched during the 3 rd Baltic Sea Region Cultural Heritage Forum "Cultural heritage and tourism: potential, impact, partnership and governance", held in September 2007 at Vilnius in Lithuania.The exhibition was prepared in English and comprised of 12 posters which were printed in 500 sets. They have been and will continue to be distributed among museums, cultural institutions, schools, and libraries around the Baltic Sea. The exhibition presents the history of harbour development, expansion, efficiency, and diversity. The poster exhibition Baltic Ships Contemporary Challenge that was opened at the 4 th Baltic Sea Region Cultural Heritage Forum, aims to raise awareness and promote the preservation of historic ships under the threat in our region. In some Baltic countries there are special registers of historic ships. This is the case, for example, in Denmark, Sweden and Finland. In other countries there is no special registers. During the IV Forum in Riga, the regional Working Group on Coastal Culture and Maritime heritage presented preliminary list of 100 Baltic Historic Ships. One of the most important achievements of the both WGs was the contribution to the 5 th BSR Cultural Heritage Forum in Tallinn 18-20 September 2013. Forum entitled The changing coastal and maritime culture focused on the maritime issues and program was mainly prepared by WG on Coastal Culture and Maritime Heritage and WG on Underwater Heritage. During this Forum 4 th exhibition project entitled Herring a shared heritage was presented. This time WG on Coastal Heritage focused on the common history of herring fishing and trading in the Baltic and North Sea region. Many important speakers talked about traditional coastal heritage landscape, maritime 2
culture and recreational tourism, preserving heritage in situ and seaside areas of the cities. Former WG projects are presented in pdf form on the web: http://mg.kpd.lt/lt/14/coastal-heritage.htm Current work of the Working Group is connected to the next exhibition project Herring in the Baltic and the North Seas. Fishing, trade and food culture. Project leader is the Museum Vest from Norway. This exhibition should be ready for V Baltic Sea Region Cultural Heritage Forum in Tallin 2013. In coming years WG on Coastal Culture and Maritime Heritage will focus on the unique exhibition project. It will be floating exhibition on board of Norwegian vessel Gamle Oksøy. It will stop in all Baltic countries showing and promoting exhibitions that WG done up to know. Special catalog with the exhibition content is planned. What is more, during the travel in the summer 2016 th there will be films prepared by each WG member institution showing different built heritage objects. Films will be included to the web platform www.coastlight.net. Exhibition and project will end during the 6 th BSR Cultural Heritage Forum in Kiel, Germany in September 2016 th. Projects of the Working Group on underwater heritage in brief (dealt later in text): http://mg.kpd.lt/lt/1/underwater-heritage.htm 3
BSR MARITIME HERITAGE ACTION PLAN 2015-2020 1. European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) http://www.balticsea-region-strategy.eu/ EUSBSR is the first macro-regional strategy in Europe. It aims at reinforcing cooperation within this large region in order to face several challenges by working together as well as promoting a more balanced development in the area. The Strategy also contributes to major EU policies and reinforces the integration within the area. The EU Baltic Sea region counts 85 million inhabitants (17 percent of EU population) and eight countries (Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland) which share common features and challenges. Hence there is a clear need for joining forces and working in cooperation. Against this background, the Strategy intends to increase the levels of environmental sustainability, prosperity, accessibility and attractiveness and safety and security. The Strategy provides an integrated framework for improving the environmental condition of the sea, transport bottlenecks and energy interconnections as well as facilitating the development of competitive markets across borders and common networks for research and innovation. In the Action Plan adopted in February 2013 there are 3 objectives and among one of them: Increase Prosperity there is Priority Area Culture mentioned. This PA promotes Flagship Projects connected to the cultural heritage of the BSR like: MARTABAL (MARiTime heritage Atlas BALtic sea) is the one year project run from June 2013 to September 2014 funded within Seed Money Facility of EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region under the Priority Area Culture - Developing and promoting the common culture and cultural identity. MARTABAL aims to enhance the existing prototype of the "Maritime Heritage Atlas of the South Baltic" and create a complete portfolio of the Baltic Heritage including historic sites and objects, constructions, museums, lighthouses, historical ships and warships, ports and shipyards, natural attractions which belong to maritime heritage, cultural and touristic events. It is a first step responding to the growing demand of high-quality products in the field of culture, tourism, nature and edutainment. The Seed Money project gives the opportunity to explore and research in detail the options of the Atlas development within the scope of content creation, new IT technology and tourist sector requirements. Moreover, it will allow to identify the most promising network of individuals that would open up a platform for collaboration around the startup idea. MARTABAL as the technical project will work out necessary components to prepare the application to the EU or national funding 4
sources e.g. the European Structural & Investment Funds programs 2014-2020 or European Territorial Cooperation (Interreg) V, Creative Europe or the Research Framework Program HORIZON 2020 It will include a description of activities and outputs, the composition of the partnership and the indicative budget of the future main project. VIABAL http://www.baltic-sea-strategy tourism.eu/cms2/eusbsr_prod/eusbsr/en/pa_tourism/seed_money_projects/viabal/index.jsp The main project targets the issue of fragmentation of the Baltic maritime heritage, i.e. the lack of a common vision and strategy on the use of maritime heritage around the Baltic Sea. By promoting a pan-baltic vision and strategy on heritage, the project wants to contribute to help branding the region as a tourist destination. The project plans to involve all levels of institutions (local, national, international /pan-baltic) in the process. Leader of the project from Sweden Mr. Roland Steen asked for possible assistance in the project in a way that MG or WG can serve as scientific committee, or scientific supervising body. It is a signal that competence of MG and WG is more and more recognizable. Both projects may refer to the competence of the MG and WGs. Their Lead partners unofficially asked for scientific assistance, involvement to the evaluation process of their future projects, taking part in advisory boards etc. Question to be discussed in the MG for future years is: are we ready to assist in any way in such actions in the framework of BSR expert network? How to support such project in general? Can we do it in commercial way in a sense that within such projects there is a budget for MG or WG members taking part in evaluation work or participating in advisory boards? 5
2. Maritime Spatial Planning http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/mare/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=22201&ne wsletter_id=114&lang=en The EU Directive Establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning launched 21. July 2014. WHAT IS MISSING? (http://www.fishsec.org/event/the-case-for-maritime-spatial-planning-efficient-resource-management-for-sustainablegrowth/; http://www.marinegis.org/marinespatialplanning.html) The BSR WGs focus on broad subject of maritime landscape of the BSR, which according to scientific definition consist of the whole network of old and new sailing routs with ports and harbours along the coast, related constructions and remains of human activity, underwater and terrestrial. In short, it mirrors entire range of maritime economies and topography of the waterfront area. There is a need to raise the awareness for the maritime heritage regarding the regional approaches on Maritime Spatial Planning. MG and WGs shall consider pro-active involvement in the legislation process which would lead to the protection of the submerged archaeological heritage. The processes and problems to be solved deal with environmental, cultural or/and even social issues in the framework of global economy, infrastructures and regional & national development. Therefore, an integrated management of maritime landscape is more resource-efficient than fragmented, sectorbased ones. But it requires awareness of working processes, registers, values and legislations. 6
We need to map what are the key issues to enhance sustainable = integrated cultural heritage management on regional level on the bases of the data the WGs and MG have collected. This data is, in turn, based on national registers and databases, thus these levels would be closely interconnected and in the scope of project targets (pilot actions). Within a project scale, however, a limitation of a kind of pilot area and target(s) would be needed. Off shore spatial planning seems to be an obvious target area. The mission of a future (EUSBSR flagship?) project would be to improve / develop registers / databases dealing with maritime landscape in such manner that they could be used across sectors and trans-boarders. Best ways for this collaboration and integration would be mapped, especially in the scope of spatial planning. Integration heritage data and concerns to cross-sector and boarder approaches, planning etc. should be enhanced both on national and regional levels. Issues to map for this kind of flagship project elaboration: - Heritage registers, databases (examples) - Relevant parties for collaboration and references of their respective databases, and their contact persons HELCOM http://helcom.fi/baltic-sea-action-planhttp://helcom.fi/baltic-sea-action-plan biodiversity Natural marine and coastal landscapes - Relevant international, European and regional (& national?) strategies and policies targeting management of maritime landscape A concept for a EUSBSR flagship project (draft 27.11.2014) Elaborating in near future bigger EU project of the MG +WGs which shall include subject of protection of the maritime landscape of the BSR. Such project can be based sharing the experience and competence in the field of heritage management. Target: integrating heritage concerns to joint maritime heritage and spatial planning approaches. To develop and combine steps according to spatial planning on land 1) with the inventories 2) find out the system of legislation 3) procedure 4) decision making. SPATIAL PLANNING 7
IN USE NATIONALLY TARGET: IN USE OFF SHORE HERITAGE & NATURE inventories systems of regulations processes decision making HERITAGE & NATURE inventories (ref. usher) systems of regulations (ref. codeuch) processes (wp which elaborates) decision making (wp which elaborates) References and / or collaboration with: UNESCO Convention on the protection of the underwater cult. Heritage 2001 (ref. wreck in the BSR appointed as UNESCO World Heritage; USHER project got financing from the PSF). Outcome of the underwater CODEUCH project. The project got EUSBSR seed money financing, start 13/10/2014. European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR, there relevant PA areas) and its action plan + relevant flagship projects; http://www.balticsea-region-strategy.eu/ Relevant other projects 3. UNESCO Convention on the protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001 (wrecks in the BSR recognized as UNESCO World Heritage) USHER project. The main aim of the project Evaluating for Universal Value of the Submerged Heritage of the BSR (USHer) is to strengthen cooperation when it comes to raising public awareness of the environment of the BSR. ifs unique underwater cultural heritage and good preservation conditions. The objective of the project USHer is to evaluate the universal value of the Baltic Sea cultural heritage, developing the strategy and activity plan for proposing the heritage to be added to the World Heritage List. 4. Involvement of both WGs in creation of scientific program of future BSR Cultural heritage Fora (VII BSR Cultural Heritage Forum 2019) To be elaborated at the WG meetings. 8
5. Other cultural activities connected to coastal and maritime heritage in the BSR Good practises: 1 Networks of museums in the BSR: a) Network of museums in the Baltic b) Baltic Sea Maritime Museums Network a) Network of museums in the Baltic is a network between professional museums, following the ICOM standards, dealing with issues concerning Baltic culture and history. The aim is to strengthen the cooperation on an institutional level so that the museums in the network can take on common projects for the benefit of all. There are 32 Museums from all Baltic countries in the network so far. Most of them are historic and archeological museums. They do simple online exhibitions. There is a steering Board coordinating basic activities. The board, which is the decision-making body of the network, consists of the directors from one museum from each country. The museum representing the country should be selected by each country. The board communicates via the web-site and mail and meets twice a year; once in connection with the yearly network meeting in the autumn, once as a board-meeting in the spring. At the spring meeting the network-coordinators from each museum should be included. The board decides about the annual budget, the annual coordinator, the location for the coming board-meeting and about new partners and associated partners in the network. Most of the communication within the network and the groups is to be done via mail, social media and via the communication-forum on the web-site. Skype and video-conferences are other cost- and time- efficient variants. A yearly fee of 100 should be paid by each partner-museum. Each associated partner should pay 100. The fees are administrated by Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova Museum during a period of five years (2013-2018). The board decides which museum shall be in charge for coming periods. The network is a long-term cooperative relationship between museums promoting the Baltic region that is so rich in cultural and historical sites, artifacts, pieces of art and stories. In this sense the museums can develop into powerful tools promoting and developing a joint Baltic "wedentity". The network supports each other in museum matters such as producing exhibitions, developing visitors sites, management, increased cultural tourism, pedagogical programs, life-long learning, analyzing artifacts, preservation queries etc. 9
Museums in the network can take on common projects in bi- or multilateral constellations. At the moment a flagship-project is being worked out thanks to funding from the Swedish Institute. The Baltic Sea has served as a natural resource and transport route for thousands of years, connecting people and cultures. We share a long history binding the countries and people in the region together. Today the Baltic Sea Region faces challenges developing communication, common cultural attractiveness, sustainable growth etc. For this reason it is urgent that museums in the Baltic Rim establish closer cooperative relationships for a professional exchange of knowledge and experience making the culture and the common heritage visible and promoted. http://balticmuseums.ning.com b) Baltic Sea Maritime Museums Network The Baltic Sea Maritime Museums Network is going to integrate not only maritime museums, but also by representatives of other cultural, tourism and education actors to face the current and future challenges of the museum and cultural sector in BSR. BSMMN creates an open network and develops further the future common activities such as seminars, collegial cooperation, lifelong learning activities for the staff members and research in museum collections and other scientific cooperation. The first step towards the BSMMN network was done by the Polish Maritime Museum in September 2012 organizing the 1st Baltic Sea Maritime Museums` Seminar in Gdansk, a scientific meeting connected to the preservation of museum ships and one discussion panel about the idea of founding this BSMM Network for systemizing closer cooperation between museums. The second step was organizing in Forum Marinum Fundation in Turku, Finland the 2nd Baltic Sea Maritime Museums` Seminar. The 3 rd scientific meeting is planned in Stockholm in 2016 th. Main results of the project will be a well-structured network composed of cultural, tourism and educational agents working on Baltic Sea Heritage, Baltic Sea transnational cooperation on culture research and innovation with a strong impact on Baltic Sea identity, creativity and regional development. The statutes of the network will be prepared in order to establish rules about the legal form, membership and accession procedure, decision-making procedure, rights and obligations of the members, etc. One of the main projects outcomes will be strengthening the regional and local maritime identity. The museums ability to reflect the needs or requirements of their community gets better and also they can better provide information on the meanings of the maritime heritage. In a way the museums are also connecting the regions of the Baltic by communicating with each other, know and sharing each other s culture. Cooperation also will increase the mobility of museum personnel and collections. 10
The network will organise regular conferences, meetings and workshops to discuss, analyse and decide on joint actions for solving common challenges related for example to Baltic Sea maritime heritage protection and management, collecting principles etc. The network will also encourage young people at the beginning of their professional career to specialize in some theme of the maritime heritage. One of the negative anticipated scenarios is that the expertise is disappearing in the maritime museums. The new generation having a degree in museology, has an excellent command on practical work in museums, but finds it difficult to attain deeper knowledge of Baltic maritime history. In the future this may lead to collections without broader contexts in regional and maritime history. The network shall be a powerful organization in providing information on lifelong learning and how to become an expert. Summary /recommendations: - Dialog between both Networks of Museums from the BSR is needed. They met once unofficially, and it was recognized that both Networks are different and have different aims. One is more general with historical and archaeological museums, the other only maritime institutions of this kind. 2 nd Network aims to work more scientific by organizing conferences like 1 st in Gdansk 2012, 2 nd in Turku 2014. 11