MARLIN

Title: Baltic Marine Litter

Summary: International organisations dealing with preservation of the marine environment more and more often address the issue of marine litter and its impact on ecosystems and economics. Persistent solid materials discarded, disposed or abandoned in the marine and coastal environment are often washed up on the shore, endangering wildlife, increasing costs for municipalities to clean beaches and water intake pipes, and posing a threat to tourism and leisure activities.

The MARLIN project contributes to the reduction of marine litter on the shores of the Central Baltic area. This is accomplished through awareness-raising actions on marine litter amongst local policy makers and relevant stakeholders, the media, and the broader public in the Central Baltic region. The project also carries out capacity-building measures in local municipalities and NGOs to address the issue of marine litter in environmental management routines.

In 2009, the United Nations Environment Programme launched the first common guidelines on marine litter assessments. The MARLN project is implementing this method in 25 key areas in Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia.

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