Small ports - sustainable gateways to coastal national parks

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Date of latest update: 2023-11-11

Description

Description (EN):

The Sustainable Gateways (SG) project develops small boat harbors located in national parks and nature reserves in the Finnish (4 harbors) and Swedish (3 harbors) outer archipelagoes. With the project´s support, these harbors become sustainable and attractive gateways for boaters - destinations, that are well-managed and offer services of good quality. Focus is on environmental sustainability, customer satisfaction, harbor operator´s business knowledge and increased regional nature-tourism. The SG-project is divided into four inter-linked work packages: 1) investments, 2) development of services and business, 3) marketing and networking and 4) environmental awareness. In the harbors, investments mean improved accessibility and safety thanks to increased pier capacity and better harbor planning. Environmental protection equipment facilities are updated, eg. waste water treatment and waste management. New service facilities will be built for visitors, eg. saunas and service buildings. The operational development component improves the managerial skills of the harbor operators and encourages them to offer new services. This will be achieved by joint training, exchange of experiences and harbor-specific business development. Joint marketing increases visibility and attractiveness of the networked gateway harbors. Environmental information is distributed to visitors in the harbors to influence their behavior. These activities will increase mobility and nature-based tourism in the outer archipelagoes in a sustainable way benefiting the entire region. These seven destinations will become showcases of sustainable and customer-oriented harbor management. In addition, the results of the project will be summarized into a Sustainable Harbor Development Manual to be used in developing other harbors with similar challenges and aims. Thus, the results may be disseminated to other harbors contributing to their development and environmental protection.

Achievements (EN):

Sustainable Gateways developed a network of small boat harbours in national parks and nature reserves: The Sustainable Gateways project developed a network of seven small boat harbours located in national parks and nature reserves in the Finnish and Swedish outer archipelago. With the project support, the harbours became more sustainable and attractive for boaters, as they are well-managed destinations that offer good quality services. The project focus was on increasing environmental sustainability, customer satisfaction and harbour operators’ business knowledge. Environmental sustainability in the ports concerned mostly preserving nature and providing better opportunities for environmental protection. Investments implemented at ports were directly related to environmental protection (such as wastewater treatment, waste collection and improved sanitation) or indirectly contributed to it. Increased service level makes the ports more attractive for visitors who will stay longer at the well-managed ports, which in turn leaves most of the natural areas protected. As part of the project activities, the harbour entrepreneurs’ business skills were improved, and a separate business plan was developed for each harbour. Thanks to the project, the port entrepreneurs have better capabilities to make their businesses sustainable. Furthermore, the project learnings were gathered as a publication for wider use. Guidelines for Sustainable Harbour Development provides necessary practical guidelines for any small boat port entrepreneur to be considered when developing a harbour for leisure time visitors.

Website: http://centralbaltic.eu/

Expected Results (EN): R3.2. Share of Central Baltic small ports with good services

Expected Outputs (EN):

Today´s boaters demand more and better harbor services. Responding to this challenge is necessary to maintain and increase the attractiveness of small boat harbors. The project will help harbors to react to - as well as anticipate - this challenge. As a result, nature-based tourism increases, mobility is improved and the regional benefits are distributed to a wide area. Physical investments increase pier capacity and safety. Saunas, service buildings, toilets and drinking water supply raise the level of land services. Environmental protection equipment, eg. waste water facilities and composting units are examples of sustainability measures to protect the environment. The business knowledge of operators will be significantly improved. They will understand their visitors, trends as well as their own business better. New service concepts and better understanding of the business potential support the economic sustainability of the companies. Harbor visibility and attractiveness are promoted by joint communication activities. The environmental awareness of boaters will be raised and their commitment to nature protection promoted with the environmental information activities in the harbors. These seven gateway harbors will become showcases of small port development, customer satisfaction and environmental responsibility that benefits a large group of stakeholders. The project´s results will be summarized into a “Sustainable Harbor Development Manual” which facilitates the dissemination of the projects outcomes to other harbors. Such guidelines are very much needed as SAF and MH host a number of harbors in protected coastal areas and only some of them can be included in the project. In the long run, all harbors need to become as customer-oriented and sustainable as the seven developed in this project.

Thematic information

Sustainable management of natural resources Tourism

Specific Objective: Improved services of existing small ports to improve local and regional mobility and contribute to tourism development

Thematic Objective: (07) promoting sustainable transport and removing bottlenecks in key network infrastructures by:

Investment Priority: (07c) developing and improving environmentally-friendly (including low-noise) and low-carbon transport systems, including inland waterways and maritime transport, ports, multimodal links and airport infrastructure, in order to promote sustainable regional and local mobility

Partners (3)

Lead Partner: Metsähallitus, Rannikon Luontopalvelut

Department: Rannikon Luontopalvelut

Address: Kärsämäentie 8, 20300 Turku, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.metsa.fi

Total budget: EUR 976 917.46

ERDF budget: EUR 732 688.10

Skärgårdsstiftelsen i Stockholms län

Name: Skärgårdsstiftelsen i Stockholms län

Address: Box 7669 -, 10394 Stockholm, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.archipelagofoundation.se

Total budget: EUR 655 205.20

ERDF budget: EUR 491 403.90

Turun yliopisto

Name: Turun yliopisto

Department: Brahea Centre

Address: Yliopistonmäki -, FIN-20014 TURUN YLIOPISTO, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.utu.fi

Total budget: EUR 98 508.00

ERDF budget: EUR 73 881.00

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Stockholm Archipelago Foundation

Small ports - sustainable gateways to coastal national parks

Partners and Projects info

University of Turku

Small ports - sustainable gateways to coastal national parks

Partners and Projects info

Parks & Wildlife Finland

Small ports - sustainable gateways to coastal national parks

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Small ports - sustainable gateways to coastal national parks

Project acronym: Sustainable Gateways

Project start date: 2018-02-01

Project end date: 2020-10-31

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 1 730 630.66

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 1 297 973.00

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 1 297 973.00.

Documents

Documents on this project are listed below, and organised by category. Please note field "Data source", attached to each document. Keep.eu users are free to use these documents as long as they mention the data source and keep.eu.

Reports

Final Report on Investment Activities on Katanpää

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://www.metsa.fi/projekti/sustainable-gateways/

Publication date: 2022-11-23

Document date: 2020-10-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Final Report on Investment Activities on Bodö

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://www.metsa.fi/projekti/sustainable-gateways/

Publication date: 2022-11-23

Document date: 2020-10-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Final Report on Investment Activities on Örö

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://www.metsa.fi/projekti/sustainable-gateways/

Publication date: 2022-11-23

Document date: 2020-10-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Final Report on Investment Activities on Jussarö

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://www.metsa.fi/projekti/sustainable-gateways/

Publication date: 2022-11-23

Document date: 2020-10-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Studies / surveys

Guidelines for Sustainable Harbour Development

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Study / survey

Data source: https://www.metsa.fi/projekti/sustainable-gateways/

Publication date: 2022-11-23

Document date: 2020-10-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-11-11

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

137 / 137 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

663 / 663 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://centralbaltic.eu/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2021-11-08, 2023-01-12 and 2024-03-08.

Languages

Contact Form

Small ports - sustainable gateways to coastal national parks

Description

Thematic information

Partners (3)

Partners map

Summary

Documents

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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