Towards a Land-based Planners’ Forum in the Baltic Sea Region

The journey began with a clear recognition that spatial planners across the Baltic Sea Region are facing many common challenges. Climate change, demographic shifts, urban-rural imbalances, energy transition, geopolitical uncertainty, and increasing policy complexity are affecting territories across the region. At the same time, opportunities for structured international exchange among land-based planning practitioners have remained limited. Against this background, the Land-based Planners’ Forum initiative set out to explore whether a new macro-regional cooperation mechanism could help strengthen planning capacity, professional exchange, and practical collaboration.

To build this foundation, the project first mapped key stakeholders from across the region and gathered input through a survey among spatial planning actors. This helped identify priority topics, preferred formats for cooperation, and expectations for a future platform. The findings were further developed through a feasibility study and recommendations, which pointed towards a gradual and practical development path for the Forum.

Further preparatory work strengthened this process. A comparative overview of spatial planning systems in the Baltic Sea Region helped clarify differences and similarities in planning frameworks, while an online seminar was the first time existing cooperation networks, initiatives and organisations came together in a targeted discussion on what already exists, what is still needed, and where opportunities lie for a dedicated Forum for land-based planners. It provided space to exchange experience, identify gaps, and explore potential cooperation across different platforms, while also helping to clarify the added value of such a format and laying the groundwork for more concrete discussions on how the Forum could take shape.

An important milestone in this journey was the launch conference held in Tallinn at the beginning of February 2026. The event brought together spatial planning practitioners, researchers, and institutional representatives from across the Baltic Sea Region to reflect on the future of cooperation among land-based planners. More importantly, it provided an opportunity to validate earlier findings and gather direct stakeholder input on the role, function, and possible formats of the Forum.

The stakeholder discussions confirmed strong support for continuing the Forum as a practice-oriented and flexible cooperation platform. Participants highlighted the need for more practical knowledge exchange, stronger professional networking, and accessible formats that can fit into the everyday realities of planning practice. Rather than highly formalised structures, the preference was for lightweight and useful formats that encourage direct exchange, case-based learning, and collaboration around shared planning challenges.

The discussions also showed that building a stronger professional community should be a central element of the Forum’s development. Better communication channels, regular exchange opportunities, and thematic cooperation around specific issues were seen as important building blocks for a lasting platform. Over time, these activities could lay the foundation for more advanced collaboration and joint initiatives across the region, including thematic projects, cross-border pilot actions, shared tools and guidance materials, and stronger coordination between existing spatial planning-related networks and processes.