Latest issue of HELCOM Newsletter released

Helsinki, 4 March (HELCOM Information Service) – The Helsinki Commission has released the latest issue of its Newsletter, HELCOM News (No.1/2008), featuring a report on the Ministerial Meeting in Krakow where HELCOM countries adopted an ambitious action plan to restore the Baltic Sea by 2021, and also containing an update on other recent HELCOM activities and current trends in the Baltic marine environment.

The top story provides an insight into the most important details of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan. The plan is the first attempt by a regional marine protection convention to implement the ecosystem approach defined by the 1992 Rio Declaration and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The cross-sectoral plan is designed to solve all the major environmental problems affecting the Baltic Sea. One of the major highlights of the new programme is that it opens a new era in marine environment protection by including the concept of maximum allowable nutrient input. It also contains provisional country-wise annual nutrient input reduction targets for both nitrogen and phosphorus, pollutants that are responsible for the continuing degradation of the sea. The plan has already earned high praise in Europe, as well as it has been awarded the European Regional Champions Award as an outstanding example of an innovative project developed by a regional marine convention.

The 44-page Newsletter includes an overview of the latest information on sources and quantities of inputs of harmful substances into the Baltic Sea, as well their effects on the state of the marine environment. According to the new HELCOM Indicator Fact Sheets, the Baltic marine environment is still being degraded, as economic activities in the region generate serious pollution and overexploit fragile ecosystems. The presented data includes details of concentrations of heavy metals and dioxin in fish, shifts in the Baltic Sea summer phytoplankton communities, and the distributions and quantities of recently arrived aquatic invasive species.

This edition also provides latest statistics on shipping accidents and illegal oil discharges. Several stories re-cap important HELCOM events, which occurred in 2007. Among them - the annual exercise of the HELCOM response fleet off Tallinn, Estonia, CEPCO surveillance flights, the recovery of a pollution Hot Spot in near Katowice, Poland, as well as the launch of an efficient phosphorus removal facility at St. Petersburg’s Central Wastewater Treatment Plant. 

The edition also features findings of the HELCOM Project on marine litter and results of a study on nitrogen oxide emissions from ships in the Baltic.

To view the PDF version of HELCOM news issue 1/2008, click here.

To order your free print copy, please call the HELCOM Secretariat: + 358 (0)207 412 649 or send an e-mail to info@helcom.fi. More details of HELCOM’s activities, publications and projects are available at http://www.helcom.fi.

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