Baltic Sea Nations Plan Holistic Environmental Assessment

HELSINKI, Finland, March 5, 2009 (ENS) - The Helsinki Commission wound up its annual meeting here today by endorsing plans for a holistic assessment of the environmental status of the Baltic Sea.

The Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is the governing body of the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area. It is an intergovernmental organization of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the European Union which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution.

At the two-day meeting, delegates reviewed the organization's progress in the protection of the Baltic marine environment from pollution and set new objectives and priorities for the future work.

Conducted by HELCOM Chairman Igor Maydanov, this was the first annual HELCOM Meeting under the two-year Russian Chairmanship, which began July 1, 2008.

"The HELCOM holistic assessment of the state of the Baltic Sea environment, which will be prepared jointly by the scientific community around the sea, is crucial for the successful implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan," said Maydanov. "It sets the baseline to follow the effectiveness of the actions featured in the plan."

Sailboats on the Baltic Sea (Photo courtesy HELCOM)

Known as the HOLAS Project, the holistic assessment "will integrate the quantitative assessments on eutrophication, caused by excessive nutrient pollution, biodiversity, inputs and effects of hazardous substances, as well as other relevant assessments," Maydanov said.

He said the assessment also will take on "overarching drivers, such as climate change and socio-economic development."

Implementation of the award-winning HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, which aims to cut pollution to the marine environment and restore the shallow sea to ecological health by 2021, topped the agenda.

Adopted in November 2008, the plan immediately received the European Regional Champions Award in the environment category.

The ambitious yet pragmatic Action Plan is the first attempt by a regional marine protection convention to implement the ecosystem approach defined by the 1992 Rio Summit Declaration and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

The "revolutionary aspect of the new plan," says HELCOM's Executive Secretary Anne Christine Brusendorff, is that it will be based on a clear set of ecological objectives defined to reflect a jointly agreed vision of a healthy Baltic Sea. Objectives include clear water, an end to excessive algal blooms, and viable populations of species.

The nine HELCOM countries will present their national programs of action to implement the Action Plan at the commission's Ministerial Meeting in Moscow in 2010.

The holistic assessment, which will assist the harmonized implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan, is set for completion in time for the Moscow meeting.

HELCOM today decided to create a joint Baltic-wide consortium of Baltic organizations active in Maritime Spatial Planning to enhance regional coordination.

EU enlargement is having considerable spatial impacts on the whole region. Maritime spatial planning is part of HELCOM's efforts to implement the ecosystem approach, create environmental integration across different sectors and ensure sustainability of natural resource use.

Delegates at the Helsinki Commission meeting considered new thematic assessments for eutrophication, biodiversity and nature conservation.

Baltic beach in winter (Photo courtesy HELCOM)

They discussed the recent launch of two large projects co-financed by the EU. One project aims to improve the readiness of the coastal countries to respond to major spills of oil and hazardous substances. The other aims to identify sources of the selected hazardous substances by performing screening in municipal and industrial wastewaters.

BaltHazAR is another new project crucial for the success of the Baltic Sea Action Plan. Launched in early 2009 with the financial support from the European Parliament pilot project facility, BaltHazAR aims to reduce discharge of hazardous substances and nutrients from point sources in the Russian regions of St. Petersburg/Leningrad and Kaliningrad.

Delegates welcomed the outcome of Chairman Maydanov's recent working visit to Minsk, where he discussed Belarus's possible accession to the Helsinki Convention with a preliminary roadmap to be ready by June 2009.

Belarus has been an observer at HELCOM since 1997. Up to 45 percent of its territory lies in the Baltic Sea catchment area.

Addressing transboundary pollution originating in Belarus and other non-HELCOM member countries in the sea's catchment area has been identified as one of the priority actions for the Helsinki Commission.

Studies show that the transboundary pollution load to the Baltic Sea from Belarus is "significant," delegates heard. Most of the pollution from Belarus comes to the sea in rivers crossing Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

The delegates also agreed to invite Ukraine and the Czech Republic to join the Helsinki Convention.

Click here to view the Baltic Sea Action Plan.

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