Press release
HELCOM countries poised to adopt an ambitious Baltic recovery plan
Helsinki, 9 November (HELCOM Information Service) – The Ministers of the Environment and Senior Government Officials of the Member States of HELCOM, an international organisation for the protection of the Baltic marine environment, will meet on 15 November in Krakow, Poland, to adopt an ambitious overarching action plan to drastically reduce pollution to the Baltic Sea and restore its good ecological status by 2021. The agreement on the set of actions will be signed by representatives of Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the European Community, which is also a HELCOM Member. Due to the upcoming general elections on 13 November and pending the formation of the new cabinet, Denmark is expected to approve the action plan at a later stage.
The holistic Baltic Sea Action Plan is designed to solve all major environmental problems affecting the Baltic Sea. Its environmental state is rapidly deteriorating and requires urgent and comprehensive actions in order to prevent an irreversible environmental catastrophe. “Failure to react right now will undermine both the prospects for the future recovery of the sea, and a vital resource for the future economic prosperity of the whole region,” says Prof. Mieczyslaw Ostojski, HELCOM’s Chairman. “The cost of non-action could be tenfold higher than the cost of action.”
Clearly realizing this, the Baltic Sea countries came together in a spirit of unprecedented co-operation to devise a recovery strategy that lists joint goals for Baltic’s future and sets forth a commitment to achieve these goals through specific actions that the coastal countries will jointly undertake.
Of the many environmental challenges, the most serious, and proving difficult to tackle with conventional approaches, is the continuing eutrophication of the Baltic Sea, caused by excessive nutrient pollution loads of nitrogen and phosphorus to the sea originating from agriculture and untreated sewage. This leads to problems like increased algae blooms, murky waters, oxygen depletion and lifeless sea bottoms. Compared to pristine conditions in the 19th century, nitrogen input to the Baltic Sea has increased ninefold, resulting in extensive summer algal blooms, as can be seen almost everywhere in the main basin of the Baltic Sea.
“The results that we get from modeling are encouraging and show that it is really possible to restore the Baltic Sea and achieve good ecological status,” says Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “We will not perhaps reach the pristine conditions but quite a pleasant situation as a result of more effective treatment of municipal waste waters, use of phosphorus-free detergents and best practices in agriculture. But we can also see that if we continue business as usual the future is not looking good for the Baltic Sea. The algae blooms will be twice as intensive as today.”
According to a HELCOM study, a total annual reduction of up to 135,000 tonnes of nitrogen and 15,000 tonnes of phosphorus will be needed to rescue the troubled sea. Most of the reductions are required in such sub-basins as the Baltic Proper, the Gulf of Finland, the Danish Straits, and the Kattegat.
The Baltic Sea Action Plan, which the HELCOM Member States decided to jointly draft in 2005, sets an ambitious target of achieving a good ecological status of the Baltic Sea - a sea with diverse biological components functioning in balance and supporting a wide range of sustainable human economic and social activities. It incorporates input of major stakeholders groups and the findings of numerous project studies, workshops, and key regional environmental policies. This plan has already been widely heralded as a pilot project for the European seas under the EU Marine Strategy and a model to be followed by other regional marine conventions around Europe.
The plan’s four segments include measures to curb eutrophication caused by excessive nutrient loads entering the sea, prevent pollution involving hazardous substances, improve maritime safety and accident response capacity, and halt habitat destruction and the decline in biodiversity. The core policy of the plan is based on the application of the innovative ecosystem approach to environmental management. This is detailed by a set of strategic goals and ecological objectives defined by HELCOM for achieving a commonly acceptable good status of the marine environment, as well as a number of environmental indicators and target levels for each objective to measure progress towards achieving good ecological status of the sea.
Note to Editors:
The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, more commonly as the Helsinki Commission or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation 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 details on the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, please visit HELCOM’s web site at http://www.helcom.fi/BSAP/en_GB/About_BSAP/. For the official programme, please visit the Polish web site at http://www.bsap.pl/eu/konferencja_eu.html. Also, please see the Media Advisory on the Ministerial Meeting: http://www.helcom.fi/press_office/news_helcom/en_GB/Media_Advisory_HELCOM_Ministerial_Meeting/.
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