This study seeks to draw on the pool of international experience in respect of strategic approaches to sustainable development (SD) in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR)1. It will recognise that each country's approach to developing NSSD will be different, and designed to suit the individual set of national economic, institutional, socio-cultural and ecological conditions. The aim is to outline, in a comparable manner, the key elements of sustainable development in each country by describing the challenges posed by the environment and the need for development,
as well as a set of national sustainable development objectives, the responsible actors and implementation instruments for SD and the arrangements put in place for monitoring and review of the NSSDs.