BSEP116B Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea - Helcom

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on how the criteria on ecological coherence can
be made operational.
In 2004, HELCOM developed a comprehensive
database on Baltic Sea Protected Areas
(http://bspa.helcom.fi) that is used together with
the HELCOM GIS for assessments and spatial
analyses. Currently (as of October 2008), the
BSPA database contains information on 113 sites,
of which 89 are officially nominated as BSPAs.
The BSPA database contains information on size
and boundaries, legal protection, management
as well as the occurrence of species, habitats and
biotopes within the sites, that are used to assess
the ecological coherence of the BSPA network.
In order to meet the requirements of the JWP,
HELCOM produced a first assessment of the
BSPA network in 2006, with the conclusion that
the network was neither coherent nor complete
(HELCOM 2007h). That assessment has been
updated for this report. The HELCOM assessment
relied on the HELCOM lists of threatened and/or
declining habitats/biotopes and species (HELCOM
2007b) and the information in the BSPA database.
A spatial GIS analysis was used to assess aspects
of coherence of the network.
In addition to the HELCOM assessment of the
BSPA network, the BALANCE project conducted
a complementary assessment of the ecological
coherence of the BSPA and Natura 2000 networks
in the Baltic Sea (Piekäinen & Korpinen 2008). This
assessment was based mainly on benthic marine
landscape maps (see Chapter 2.1, Marine landscapes),
which in the absence of continuous maps
of benthic habitats at the Baltic Sea scale were
used as proxies for the broad-scale distribution and
>3000 ha
>1000 – 3000 ha
>100 – 1000 ha
extent of ecologically relevant entities of the seafloor
(Al-Hamdani & Reker 2007). The analysis was
carried out using spatial analyses to determine, for
example, the distribution of sites as well as the coverage
of marine landscapes within the protected
sites compared to the total amount, distribution
and coverage in the entire Baltic Sea. Unlike the
HELCOM assessment, BALANCE assessed all sites
in the HELCOM BSPA database that were classified
as ‘notified and designated’ as well as those that
were ‘proposed by Recommendation 15/5, but still
not designated’—at that time a total of 92 sites.
The combined conclusions of the two analyses
carried out by HELCOM and BALANCE 10 are
described below.
Adequacy of BSPAs
An adequate MPA has an appropriate size, shape,
location and quality to ensure the ecological
viability and integrity of the populations, species
and communities for which it was selected. As a
set, the individual MPAs should together fulfil the
aims of the entire MPA network. For example,
protection efficiency, the level of influence from
the adjacent environment (e.g., anthropogenic
disturbance), and the location of MPAs (pelagic vs.
coastal) are important considerations when assessing
the adequacy of a site. At present, the BSPA
network can be described as follows:
Size: HELCOM Recommendation 15/5 and its specific
Guidelines state that the minimum size for a
terrestrial site should be 1000 ha and for a marine/
lagoon BSPA 3000 ha 11 . The size of almost all
(94%) of the 89 designated and managed marine
BSPAs (excluding terrestrial parts) exceeds 1000 ha
and 78% of the sites are larger than 3000 ha. The
size distribution of BSPAs in each of the HELCOM
Contracting Parties is shown in Figure 7.2.
Number of sites
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10
5
Total coverage and distribution: The World
Summit on Sustainable Development, and subsequently
the Convention on Biological Diversity,
adopted a global target of 10% of all marine
ecological regions to be effectively conserved by
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0
Denmark Estonia Finland Germany Latvia Lithuania Poland Russia Sweden
Figure 7.2. The size distribution of BSPAs in HELCOM Contracting
Parties.
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The BALANCE information on ecological coherence,
which is quoted in this section, is taken from Piekäinen &
Korpinen (2008).
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Available at: http://www.helcom.fi/Recommendations/
guidelines/en_GB/guide15_5