Att Skapa Ringar på Vatten

Sammanfattning: Society is facing numerous environmental challenges today and tomorrow. Several global, national, and regional frameworks and instruments are in place to battle the storm. The Regional Council in Scania works with environmental issues through different programs and methods. Miljövårdsfonden is one of these methods, where financial support is allocated to various external projects to further a positive environmental development in the region. This study aimed to investigate Miljövårdsfonden and see how funding from the Regional Council can aid external actors help the environmental progress in Scania. The distribution of funding and the outcome of some of the projects were explored using the project owners' applications and reports. In addition, interviews with seven project owners were conducted to get their views on Miljövårdsfonden. The results show that 223 projects were granted funding between 2013 and 2019. In total, more than 35 million Swedish kronor were granted. There was a somewhat skewed geographical dispersion of fund-granted projects since more than 60% of all the project owners were placed in the southwest of Scania. Out of the 15 projects studied more in-depth, there were some similarities in the outcome. Several projects had an informational impact in that they informed stakeholders about, for example, technical solutions to sustainability problems or the importance of the cultural environment, through education, meetings, or other methods. All the project owners highlighted the simplicity of Miljövårdsfonden compared to other financial support systems. Some of them also expressed that the importance of Miljövårdsfonden lies in the possibility for them to test new ideas and the availability of funding for smaller organizations. According to the project owners, it would be beneficial if some aspects of Miljövårdsfonden were revised.