The Baltic Environmental Forum (BEF) Group is a network of five independent, non-profi t, non-governmental, environmental organisations. Our four offices in Hamburg, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius cooperate and engage in joint activities on a variety of environmental issues, such as energy efficiency, nature protection and biodiversity, chemicals policy, as well as water and waste policy, but also horizontal topics like climate change, integrated maritime policy as well as urban and rural environment.
Our vision is that of a better environment with a sustainable use of resources. This we aim for in our core region around the Eastern Baltic Sea Region, for which we take a particular responsibility, but also beyond in other regions of Europe. For us environmental problems can only be solved across borders: geographically, topically and across stakeholder groups. Therefore, we collaborate with partners on local, regional, national and transnational level all over Europe in the projects we develop and implement. We believe that European environmental legislation provides a good leverage to achieve our goals. However, we do not stop at this point. We look critically at the goals and targets defi ned therein as well as at the national implementation and contribute to improve legislation where necessary.
In our target region, we facilitate political and social processes that help to achieve our vision. For this purpose, we develop own ideas and projects based on the need for action we observe. In our projects, we bring the right actors together – from public authorities, science, business, industry or civil society. We organise round tables, seminars, workshops, conferences and study visits to discuss diff erent interests, broaden perspectives of our stakeholders, increase knowledge and bring forward a solution that is acceptable for the stakeholders involved. In this way, we play an important role in our target region, initiating communication and thinking processes on European environmental policy. We have a profound knowledge of a variety of environmental topics and the related legislation. We use our analytical skills and the insights from our background analysis and policy assessments to steer discussion, express our opinion on political developments and to a certain extend also act as advisor supporting in particular public authorities in the development and implementation of environmental legislation. Our publications, such as handbooks and training materials are an important aspect of our capacity building efforts.
