HELCOM conducts marine spatial planning exercise in the Baltic

Helsinki, 5 March (HELCOM Information Service) – The 3rd Stakeholder Conference on the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, held on 4 March in Helsinki, featured a table-top exercise, which aimed to illustrate the problems related to the process of marine spatial planning when trying to balance conservation needs and other uses of the marine environment. Broad-scale marine spatial planning is one of the new concepts within the Baltic Sea Action Plan, which was adopted by the HELCOM Member States to restore the marine environment by 2021.

The exercise involved government officials, representatives of the scientific and business communities of the Baltic Sea coastal countries, as well as the European Community, and major regional organisations.

The participatory activity revolved around a fictive case where Conference participants, split into groups of 10-15, were requested to propose locations for 20 gigawatts of wind energy parks and additional Baltic Sea Protected Areas on a map of the Baltic Sea. Background information about various anthropogenic activities and natural values of the Baltic were given to support the requested decision.

During the exercise, the participants became familiar with the challenges, and the costs and benefits that need to be considered when planning the uses of marine areas, having to take into account differing stakeholder interests as well as potential negative environmental consequences of various different choices.

In the concluding panel session, group leaders discussed the processes and issues that arose during the group exercise.

“The participants of the Conference shared the view that broad scale marine spatial planning is an important part of an ecosystem approach to management of human activities as it highlights the need to coordinate and plan various human activities in space,” said Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “It was recognised that the spatial dimension is relevant to monitoring, planning and regulating activities and marine spatial planning is also in this sense closely linked to ecosystem approach and its implementation.”

HELCOM’s activities to develop common principles for broad-scale marine spatial planning were considered important for harmonising different approaches and setting common goals for the Baltic region. By that HELCOM could play a valuable supportive role for implementing national and especially regional commitments as regards marine spatial planning.

HELCOM was recognised as an important focal point for sharing best practices and as a knowledge “factory” in the region as well as a regional environmental data provider and a data access point in the Baltic.

Furthermore, HELCOM was seen as having an important role in integrating and harmonising marine spatial planning between EU and the Russia Federation. The need to have the same overall principles applied in the whole Baltic Sea are important in the light of various legislative and non-legislative initiatives addressing spatial planning ongoing on a national and European level, including the incoming EU Maritime Policy and its Blue Book. The Conference was also of an opinion that HELCOM could and should contribute to these initiatives and be a proactive partner in their regional implementation.

Note to Editors: 

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, more commonly as the Helsinki Commission or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organization of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the European Community working to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution and to ensure safety of navigation. 

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," also known as the Helsinki Convention.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Nikolay Vlasov

Information Secretary

HELCOM

Tel: +358 (0)207 412 635

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi