CHRONICLE: Wow - A Maritime National Park!

Can you feel anything but happiness, if you live on an island in the Baltic Sea and realize that a major chunk of the neighboring sea is about to become a national park? Many of us were both delighted and surprised in April 2020, when the Swedish government and our local municipality agreed that the outer Nämdö archipelago should become the first maritime national park on Sweden’s Baltic coast. Number two in the country, after Kosterhavet on the West Coast, inaugurated in 2007.

Since that day I’ve been torn between hope, disbelief and disappointment. Nämdö islanders have been vaguely aware of discussions about our splendid, pristine outer archipelago since the 80s. But the decision came abruptly, without any preceding discussion. All responsibility lies with the Environmental Protection Agency and the county administration. Since the planned area is almost uninhabited, they didn’t deem it necessary to gather any input from the islanders or owners of vacation homes. The pandemic was raging; we were invited to zoom meeting, informed, but not listened to.

So the start was disappointing. But there was still curiosity. Before the inauguration of the national park, Värmdö municipality was obliged to study the possible impact of the national park on the whole population in the Nämdö archipelago. Some of us went to see Kosterhavet to understand how a maritime national park works. For the first time we were introduced to the concept of “adaptive management”. A national park with the task of protecting nature and at the same time making it accessible to the public under regulated forms. Jet ski ban and a five knot speed limit during the tourist season to discourage fast yachts, no trawling (except for shrimp), maximum two over-night stops for visiting yachts, sheep grazing on the islands, snorkel trails near beaches, guards on duty every day during the season and a smart-looking visitors’ center on neighboring Sydkoster to give the visitor a feel of all that is inaccessible to the naked eye.

That raised hope. Which turned into disbelief. Very little of what we had seen was to be in the new maritime national park. The “adaptive management” is still in the proposal expected to be put before the parliament in 2025. But there are no general speed limits, no zones with complete fishing bans, no concrete plans for an active management of the sea, which makes up 97% of the protected area. Instead of a visitors’ center, information boards are put on some of the islands. You learn very little about the sea from reading an information board. A splendid opportunity for raising interest and awareness about our sea is completely missed. Instead of a welcoming hand, the visitor gets a finger.

I make another trip to Kosterhavet to see with my own eyes how adaptive management works. Moving in five knots wears a little on my patience at first, but it is pleasant. We’re surrounded by kayaks and sailboats leisurely bobbing on the water. Low noise. Nature can be seen – and heard.

Kosterhavet’s Manager Anders Tysklind explains that the adaptive approach is a mild step-by-step process of persuasion, in cooperation with the locals and other stakeholders, to introduce tougher restrictions in the national park. From 2025 there is a total ban on jet-skis, extended no-fishing-zones. Anders talks about the importance of close surveillance and dialogue with visitors, without playing the police. The coastguards take care of blatant violations, extremely few cases end up in court.

”The Kosterhavet National Park was created at a lucky moment in time”, says Anders Tysklind, when I air my disappointment over the level of ambition with the Nämdö archipelago national park. This was before the pandemic, the inflation, the war in Ukraine and the accelerating climate emergency. Now the Environment Protection Agency has the odd task of speeding up the creation of national parks, at the same time as the funding is slashed. The reaction among the locals is mixed: from those who want to see the whole plan scrapped from fear of unhindered mass tourism to the majority who dejectedly think “come what may”. Enthusiasts are few.

As a friend of nature and an inveterate optimist I belong to the group who think it is better to have a national park than trying to stop it. I cling to the idea of adaptive management. Once the national park is there, we can influence how it is used. There is no end to good arguments for protecting the sea. There is solid proof for the usefulness of local fishing bans. The national park gives us at least a visible goal, a platform to work with. We too must prove that we are adaptive, push for change, create new methods to illustrate why the Baltic Sea needs help and support to survive.