Activities of HELCOM in assessing the Baltic Sea

Maria Laamanen, HELCOM Professional Secretary

Workshop in support of the UN Regular process for global reporting and assessment of the state of the marine

environment

27 June 2012, Brussels, Belgium

• Governing body of Helsinki Convention (1974, 1992)

• 10 Contracting Parties: – Denmark – Estonia – European Community– Finland– Germany– Latvia– Lithuania– Poland– Russia – Sweden

• Observers:– Belarus– Ukraine– Various

organisations• HELCOM Secretariat

assists and facilitates

Helsinki Commission (HELCOM): bridging science and policy

What’s in the Baltic Sea for us?

Source: What’s in the Sea for me? Swedish EPA, 2009

Monetary value of the Baltic

Sea:>5 000 000

000 Euro/year ?

• Adopted in 2007 at the Ministerial level

• Ecosystem-based approach to management of human activities

• Ecological goals and objectives

• Measures and actions for:– Eutrophication– Hazardous substances– Maritime activities– Biodiversity and nature

conservation• National Implementation

Programmes• Specific section addressing

development of assessment tools and methodologies

Ecosystem approach for the Baltic: HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan

• Based on data from HELCOM’s coordinated monitoring programmes

• Use of indicator-based assessment tools

HELCOM Initial Holistic Assessment of the Ecosystem Health of the Baltic Sea 2003-2007• Overview of the

ecosystem health of the Baltic Sea in 2003-2007

• Status, anthropogenic pressures and economic analysis

• Baseline for assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of the measures of the HELCOM BSAP – How far are we from reaching good environmental status?

Ecosystem health status of the entire sea was impaired in 2003-2007

• Based on biological and chemical status indicators

• In all sub-basins the status was classified as being impaired, i.e. moderate, poor or bad

• The poor status of the Baltic Sea Proper is due to eutrophication, contamination with hazardous substances and decline of biodiversity

• Gulf of Bothnia is the sub-basin with the least impoverished status

Bottom trawling

Shipping intensity

Airborne nitrogen

depositionUnderwater

noise

What are the pressures on the marine environment?

• Analysis of anthropogenic pressures : 52 data layers, here just a few examples...

• A single activity may result in many pressures

Baltic Sea Pressure IndexSpatial distribution of the sum of human-induced pressures

• For each 5x5 km square of the sea, pressures taking place in that area were summed up

• Human activities put a pressure on the entire sea area with the least pressure in the northern areas and the most in the eastern, southeastern and southern areas

What is the status? – Eutrophication

Secch

i (m

)

Ch

loro

ph

yll a

(µg

L-1

)

Eutrophication: Development of the nutrient inputs

• Overall decline of nitrogen and phosphorus loads since the early 1990s

• The BSAP targets have not been reached for either of the nutrients

Socio-economic knowledge

Costs and benefits of reaching the BSAP targets for eutrophication

What is the status?– Biodiversity and nature conservation

Biodiversity status

Assessment of the ecological coherence of the network of protected areas

• Over 10% of the Baltic Sea marine area is protected area

• Ecological coherence not reached yet

What is the status?–Hazardous substances

DD

E -

PC

B

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

mean productivity

.0

.2

.4

.6

.8

1.0

1.2

Year 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 00 05

.0

.2

.4

.6

.8

1.0

1.2

pia - 09.10.16 16:30, PR_DDE_PCB2

of w

hite

tail e

ag

les

How do we do it?Monitoring activities

• Monitoring and assessment Strategy (2005)

• Data and Information Strategy (2005)

• Monitoring programmes:– COMBINE programme– Pollution Load Compilations– Monitoring of Radioactive

substances (MORS)– FISH-PRO monitoring of coastal fish– Seal expert group’s activities on

monitoring of seals

How do we do it?Indicators

• HELCOM Indicator Fact Sheets:– Descriptive, i.e., no targets– Updated annually, about 35 sheets– Available at:

http://www.helcom.fi/BSAP_assessment/ifs/ifs2011/

• Development of the core set of indicators (2010-2013)– With targets, to assess progress

towards good environmental status– Quantitative– State and pressures– In 2013 web site and after 2013

operationalisation

How do we do it?Assessment tools

• To integrate the indicator information• To enable status classification (bad – high status)• Status assessment tools, including confidence

assessment, available for:– Eutrophication assessment – HEAT– Assessment of hazardous substances pollution – CHASE– Pilot tool for biodiversity assessment – BEAT– Ecosystem health status - HOLAS

• Pressures from human activities assessed using the Baltic Sea Pressure Index and Impact Index

Thank you!

www.helcom.fi

For publications:http://www.helcom.fi/

publications/en_GB/publications/