Prizewinner 2004

CCB is a NGO network which spans the Baltic and was set up in 1990 only a few months after the fall of the wall between eastern and western Europe.

It is a politically independent, non-profit-making body with the overall goal of working to protect and improve the environment and the natural resources of the Baltic Sea Area.

CCB works mainly through information, environmental education and other activities to raise public awareness, but also through concrete co-operation projects in the field, financed by the wealthier northern nations around the Baltic Sea.

CCB is a unique organisation with its 27 member organisations representing more than half a million members around the Baltic Sea and their consenting performance with people at local level.

As an international network organisation, CCB has the advantage of being able to work both at the international and national policy levels and with various different projects.

The jury justifies its choice of winner: The prize goes to CCB for the model way in which the organisation has brought environmental organisations from the Nordic region, the Baltic States and elsewhere together into a single network.

This has made it possible for the Coalition to draw attention to, and influence the public on, one of the greatest environmental issues facing the Nordic region, the threat to the marine environment in the Baltic Sea.

The Coalition has used information, education, new technology and field projects to create new platforms for ideal forms of environmental work. It has been able to put forward important proposals for solutions to the environmental problems in the Baltic Sea such as emissions, excess use of fertilisers and over fishing.