Background and Rationale
The Kiel Munition Clearance Week 2025 (KMCW2025) highlighted that sea-dumped munitions pose a complex and critical challenge in European waters and beyond, with wide-ranging impacts on environmental systems, human health, and safety. Decades of military and post-war activity have left vast quantities of conventional and chemical munitions on the seafloor, where corrosion, leakage, and disturbance create persistent threats. The magnitude and distribution of these munitions make total removal presumably unfeasible, necessitating a strategic, science-driven approach to remediation prioritization and action.
The three sister-projects MMinE-SwEEPER, MUNIMAP and MUNI-RISK work in a coordinated manner to address these challenges through research, stakeholder engagement, and the development of practical solutions. The workshop was designed to bring together a diverse spectrum of stakeholders and experts to co-create pathways for understanding and mitigating the impacts of sea-dumped munitions during KMCW2025.
Workshop Structure
The workshop was structured around the World Café methodology, which emphasizes collaborative and iterative small-group dialogues. The main components and procedural steps were as follows:
- Welcome and Introduction: An initial plenary session set the context, presented project objectives, and introduced the World Café format.
- Roundtable Discussions: Participants (approximately 40 participants) were gathered around three question-tables and then rotated through several discussion rounds (20 min per round) with a focus on two questions.
- Harvesting Insights: Following rotations, groups reconvened to share and organize emerg-ing insights. Flip charts presented the two central questions per table. Individual silent con-tributions (sticky notes) were shared, discussed, and clustered under each question. This process was iterated across all tables, ensuring a cumulative and comprehensive exchange of ideas.
- Action Planning: The workshop was concluded with plenary review and synthesis of all sug-gestions, clarifications, and a collaborative discussion focused on actionable strategies for addressing the munitions issue.
- Synthesis and Sharing: Outputs—comprising notes and documented insights from both the workshop and parallel events (the KMCW booth we had and the Mentimeter session we ran are being integrated and compiled)—were compiled and shared among participants for feedback and to inform future (online and physical) workshops.
Scientific Objectives
The central scientific and policy objectives guiding this initiative are threefold:
- WHAT to Remediate: Establishing a prioritized list of munitions or sites for intervention, in-formed by systematic risk assessment, environmental and human risk modeling, and stakeholder perspectives.
- HOW to Remediate: Identification and evaluation of remediation methods and activities, including technology options, risk mitigation strategies, operational constraints, and cost-benefit considerations.
- WHO is Responsible: Clarification of legal mandates, governance frameworks, and delinea-tion of responsibility among governmental agencies, international organizations, and other actors.
Collaborative Approach and Expected Outcomes
The workshop’s World Café format was intended to maximize knowledge exchange, interdisciplinary interaction, and collective problem-solving. Facilitators at each table guided discussion, captured insights, and ensured continuity between groups, using the prior group's responses as discussion points for the next. The rotating structure ensured that all participants engaged with multiple facets of the issue and benefitted from the evolving dialogue.
Key messages from each roundtable — including areas of consensus and divergence — were synthesized and presented in plenary, followed by open discussion to clarify, refine, and capture the breadth of ideas. Documentation of all proceedings will serve as the foundation for actionable recommendations and the basis for ongoing collaboration. Significance and Next Steps A holistic, participatory approach is essential for tackling the challenges posed by sea-dumped munitions. By engaging a broad array of stakeholders — scientists, policymakers, industry representatives, and civil society — the three projects aspire to develop robust, evidence-based strategies for prioritization, remediation, and governance.
The workshop outcomes will directly inform ongoing research, policy dialogue, and the design of further workshops, both online and in-person. Synthesized results will be disseminated among participants and shared across related projects, supporting a networked, transparent, and adaptive response to one of the most persistent marine environmental threats in Europe. The results will be used in a joint peer-reviewed paper as well as a Deliverable for MMinE-SwEEPER. The outcome was that there were high concerns regarding the potential impacts and risks munitions may have on the environment. Further details will be forthcoming in the deliverable.
Photo credits of news tile: KMCW2025
