HELCOM launches a major assessment of Baltic species' and biotopes' threat status

Helsinki, 22 May (HELCOM Information Service) – HELCOM has launched an overarching project to assess the threat status of species and biotopes of the Baltic Sea. This four-year project will cover all species of marine mammals, birds, plants, fishes and invertebrate animals that occur in the Baltic Sea and depend on the Baltic underwater environment, as well as all Baltic Sea underwater biotopes.

“This project is part of the strategic HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to restore the good ecological status of the marine environment by 2021,” says Maria Laamanen, Professional Secretary at HELCOM. “The result of this project will be a complete Red List report containing threatened or nearly threatened Baltic Sea species and biotopes. The project will also produce valuable additional information on the Baltic Sea species and biotopes, such as information on their distribution, trends in abundance and factors causing their decline. This information will be of high importance when management measures for protection of the species and biotopes will be considered,” says Laamanen.

As a concrete step of protection measures, HELCOM is developing a Baltic-wide network of marine protected areas. HELCOM has set a target to reach an ecologically coherent network of protected areas by 2010. At its 11th Meeting, held in Kotka, Finland on 12-15 May, HELCOM’s nature protection and biodiversity group (HELCOM HABITAT) agreed that an assessment of the ecological coherence of the network of marine protected areas will be produced and presented at the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting which will be held in May 2010 in Moscow.

Both the production of the complete list of threatened species and biotopes and of the assessment of the ecological coherence of the Baltic Sea marine protected areas will be of great value for the development of maritime spatial planning in the Baltic Sea. Maritime spatial planning can only be carried out on the basis of good data and information on different aspects of the Baltic.

“The recent HELCOM HABITAT Meeting also stressed the importance that HELCOM will continue to function as a Baltic Sea region forum for considerations on maritime spatial planning, and that HELCOM’s environmental goals and objectives will be fully taken into account and built upon when developing maritime spatial planning,” says Laamanen. HELCOM has already initiated the elaboration of principles for maritime spatial planning and is also planning to present those principles for approval at the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting in 2010.

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution. 

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," 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