Generous support from Ålandsbanken’s Baltic Sea Project

Race For The Baltic is very grateful to Ålandsbanken and the Baltic Sea Project for their long-term commitment to a healthier Baltic Sea, and for awarding us a generous grant of 95,000 euros for our new project in Guöviken, Karlshamn Municipality.

This support is important because it enables early-stage, locally grounded work that can lead to concrete future measures — and help build a model for how similar eutrophication challenges can be addressed in other coastal bays around the Baltic Sea.

Anne-Maria Salonius, Director of Ålandsbanken Finland, and Beatrix Koller, Race For The Baltic, at the handover of the grant diploma during Ålandsbanken’s Baltic Sea Project ceremony in Helsinki.
Photo: Ålandsbanken

At the Baltic Sea Project event in Helsinki, we received the diploma for the grant and had the opportunity to meet many of the other fantastic projects awarded funding this year. It was inspiring to see so many initiatives working towards the same goal: a healthier Baltic Sea.

Guöviken is a coastal bay in Blekinge heavily affected by eutrophication. Through a comprehensive pre-study, the project will map sediment conditions and nutrient inputs from land, with the aim of identifying concrete, locally adapted measures for long-term water quality improvement. The next step will be to implement measures that reduce nutrient flows from land into the bay. The results will also help assess whether seabed treatment, including phosphorus precipitation, could be a suitable additional measure to further reduce eutrophication.

The results will be anchored with local stakeholders and serve as a decision-making basis for future restoration efforts.

Read Ålandsbanken’s press release here: Ålandsbanken’s Baltic Sea Project 2026

Read more about the Guöviken project here: Restoration Guöviken