Dear UBC friends,

Please find attached the joint letter of the Mayor of Tallinn Mr Mihhail Kõlvart and Mayor of Helsinki Mr Juhana Vartiainen addressed to your Mayors with a call for cities around the Baltic Sea to join the international campaign Save Our Sea, which takes place from 31 August to 16 September 2023.

Tallinn and Helsinki have always been proud to be coastal cities and good partners. In recent years, we have both worked hard to open the city to the sea. This year, when Tallinn is the European Green Capital, we want to give something back to our Baltic Sea.

There is an urgent need to raise awareness of the vulnerability of the Baltic Sea, engage communities and organizations, lead clean-up actions and environmental activities, and highlight new technologies developed by businesses and scientists from Baltic Sea countries to address marine pollution. Far too much plastic and other waste still finds its way to the sea. Removing litter from beaches and any coastal areas, as well as rivers that flow to the Baltic Sea is a significant step to create awareness and help the sea and its ecosystem.

Save Our Sea is a macroregional two-week campaign held this year for the first time. The campaign will start on 31 August on the Baltic Sea Day, an initiative launched by John Nurminen Foundation (Helsinki) in 2019 with the aim to raise awareness about the Baltic Sea environment, and end on 16 September on World Cleanup Day – one of the biggest global environmental initiatives launched in Tallinn in 2018 by the global movement Let’s Do It World, our main campaign partner.

In case you would like to join forces with us we kindly ask you to appoint a contact person from your organization for this campaign and send the contacts to the project manager Ms. Heidi Solba balticsea@ldiw.org by May 19, 2023. The City of Tallinn and Let’s Do It World will organize an online webinar for contact persons on May 30 at 10 o’clock CET to introduce the concept and engage the Baltic Sea region cities and organizations in the Save Our Sea campaign.

 Some of you have already received the letter directly from Tallinn  – we are sorry for cross-posting.

Best Regards,

Heili Luik

Head of International Relations Unit

City of Tallinn

Letter Tallinn And Helsinki Invitation Save The Sea 2023 Signed