On Wednesday, Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria attended the Sea and Water Forum in Gothenburg. The forum was started when Jakob Granit, Director General of the Sea and Water Authority, welcoming everyone and especially the Crown Princess. After that, Sweden’s maritime ambassador Helen Ågren spoke about the world’s ocean as a resource for global development; his speech had the title “We are all connected with the same sea”.
Sophie Carler from the Iron Office, Björn Haase from Höganäs AB and Jonas Larsson from SSAB talked about the voluntary commitments of the Swedish steel industry to contribute to achieving global goals related to the global warming. Then a panel discussion followed on digital traceability of fishery and aquaculture products. In the discussion, participants were talking about challenges for the environment and the consumer.
The Crown Princess congratulates Project Manager Niclas Åberg. Photo: Natalie Greppi / Havs- och vattenmyndigheten via The Swedish Authorities Newsroom.
Before the Crown Princess had lunch, the winner of the award “Sjöstjärnan” was handed out. The winner of the prize for 2017 was the Västervik municipality. Representatives from the municipality held a short speech.
Following lunch, the Crown Princess attended another lecture, now given by the Minister for the Environment Karolina Skoog who talked about what the government has done over the past four years. The Minister of the Environment also highlighted the importance of increasing awareness of sea and water when strengthening knowledge.
Crown Princess Victoria together with the winners of this year’s award. Photo: Kungahuset.se
After that, the Minister of Environment handed out this year’s award of “Sjöstjärnan”, the winner of 2018 was “The 8-fjord project in Bohuslän”. The main reason for why the 8-fjord project started was that municipal residents in Bohuslän were not pleased with the state of the fjords. Initial meetings were held in 1999. The local communities then decided to continue to improve and develop the fjord area.
The Forum was concluded in the afternoon with a longer presentation from Rich Water, who started Sweden’s first LIFE-IP project. He talked about the strengths of better water in the Baltic Sea. Following this, the Crown Princess left the forum. The Forum was organised by the Sea and Water Authority fo Sweden.
