BSEP116B Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea - Helcom

7.1 History of marine and
coastal Baltic Sea Protected
Areas
Initial suite of 62 BSPA sites
HELCOM started as early as 1994 to establish a
system of marine and coastal Baltic Sea Protected
Areas (HELCOM Recommendation 15/5). All Contracting
Parties to the Helsinki Convention contributed
by identifying and nominating an initial suite
of 62 sites towards establishing a coherent network
of BSPAs. Contracting Parties committed themselves
to define definite boundaries and management
measures for these sites as soon as possible, and to
include additional BSPAs, particularly offshore sites
outside their territorial waters.
In order to implement Recommendation 15/5,
the HELCOM Working Group on Nature Conservation
and Biodiversity agreed in 1996 on Selection
Guidelines for BSPAs. In addition, it compiled
a comprehensive overview of all existing coastal
and marine protected areas (not only BSPAs) in
the Baltic Sea area (HELCOM 1996a). This work
was followed by an intensive assessment showing
that there already existed a wide range of coastal
terrestrial and nearshore marine protected areas
in all Baltic Sea states. However, many of these
were not included in the BSPA system, although
they would have qualified according to expert
opinion. Additionally, the assessment showed
that there was a lack of offshore protected sites
in the Baltic Sea as a whole. Consequently, an
expert was commissioned to identify potential
offshore BSPAs. Hägerhäll & Skov (1998) proposed
24 ecologically significant offshore sites,
but only some of them have subsequently been
designated as new BSPAs (Table 7.1).
In 2003, the HELCOM and OSPAR Commissions
met for the first time in Bremen, Germany. At the
high-level meeting, ministers reaffirmed their commitments
to establish a coherent network of wellmanaged
marine protected areas by 2010 (here-
Land uplift shore in the Outer Bothnian Threshold Archipelago,
Finland (The Quark)
after referred to as the 2010 target) and adopted
a Joint Work Programme (JWP) for the OSPAR and
HELCOM Convention Areas.
Nomination of Natura 2000 sites as BSPAs
Natura 2000 is a network of protected areas legislated
by the European Union (Box 7.1). Currently
within HELCOM, eight of the nine member countries
are EU Members and thereby bound by its directives,
with Russia the only exception. The Emerald
Network under the Bern Convention is complementary
to EU’s Natura 2000 network in non-EU
countries on the entire European continent and in
some countries in Africa. Although Russia has not
signed the Bern Convention, it may nominate sites
to the network. For Russia, the relevant international
agreements related to marine protected areas
(MPAs) are the Ramsar Convention, the Convention
on Biological Diversity and the Helsinki Convention.
HELCOM sought to combine efforts with the European
Union to implement the HELCOM/OSPAR
Joint Work Programme on MPAs. In this context,
HELCOM decided in 2005 that “…the designation
of NATURA 2000 sites by the EU Member
Table 7.1. The history of the designation status of BSPAs.
Designated and/or
managed BSPAs
1994 (HELCOM Rec.
15/5
2003 (JWP agreed) 2006 Assessment Actual number of
sites (end of 2008)
None 10 78 89
137