The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SaWM/HaV) has a new director-general with the appointment of Jakob Granit to the post as of the first of September.
He comes to the job with a background in physical geography that has taken him to the Stockholm International Water Institute, the World Bank and SIDA, and he joins SaWM from the Stockholm Environment Institute. His 2012 doctoral thesis deals with rights management of transboundary freshwater resources.
‘We are not achieving the results we want in terms of good ecological status. Then we must ask ourselves why is there such a lack of knowledge that allows our management model is not working,’ he commented.
‘The Marine and Water Authority is a department with a great deal of knowledge behind it. We can participate and provide better data for policy decisions, we can also work with municipalities and provincial governments to work together to find solutions that are perceived as more effective than today’s.’
He has highlighted hydropower and marine planning as areas ready for attention, as well as the need to support a commercial fishing fleet that is sustainable in both ecological and economic terms.
‘I know that it can sometimes feel as if there is a conflict of interest between different stakeholders to achieve that goal. But it must be possible to find ways in which environmental and fisheries interests can be reconciled. Exactly how to do it, I can not say yet, but it’s something that I’m sure the marine experts at SaWM can teach me,’ he said.
