BSEP116B Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea - Helcom

estrial, nearshore marine, and offshore marine
areas, a considerably larger share is found within
the territorial waters (i.e., coastal waters extending
up to 12 nautical miles from the baseline) where,
according to the current situation, about 7.6% of
the total sea area is covered by BSPAs, compared
to the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) where only
about 1.2% of the area is covered. Table 7.2 shows
that most countries have not yet designated offshore
BSPAs in their EEZs.
as EU Natura 2000 sites, thus ensuring the protection
of at least the habitats and species listed
in the annexes to the Birds and Habitats Directives.
Within the EEZ, five of the ten sites—either
fully or partly in the EEZ—have national protection,
whereas 20% are partly and 30% not at all
protected by national legislation. Because 90%
of the EEZ BSPAs are also Natura 2000 sites, the
level of international protection in the EEZ is high
for these sites.
142
Proportion of area (%)
The network of designated BSPAs has grown significantly
since the Joint Work Programme was
agreed in 2003 (Tables 7.1 and 7.2), especially in
the EEZ. Sweden (2% of EEZ) and Denmark (19.5%
of EEZ) have designated one offshore site each
within their EEZ, and Germany (54.8% of EEZ) has
designated three sites. Additionally, Sweden and
Denmark have two sites and Latvia has one site
designated partly within their EEZs.
Legal protection and management: Relevant
and efficient management is crucial to secure
long-term protection of the sites. According to
HELCOM (1996a) and the BSPA database (in
October 2008), 67 of the 89 designated BSPAs
have at least parts of the total area protected
under national legislation; that is, they are classified,
for example, as national parks or nature
reserves (Figure 7.3). All sites in Poland and the
majority of the sites in Finland, Latvia and Lithuania
are protected by national legislation, while in
the other countries only about half of the BSPAs
are protected partly or fully under their legislation.
Nearly all BSPAs (98.6%) are also designated
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Denmark Estonia Finland Germany Latvia Lithuania Poland Russia Sweden
Nationally Protected
Internationally Protected
Partly Nationally Protected
No National Protection
Figure 7.3. The protection status of Baltic Sea Protected Areas according
to national and international legal protection status in HELCOM
Contracting Parties. The exact area (km 2 ) and the number of sites per
country are presented in Table 7.2. International protection includes
the EU Natura 2000 network, Emerald network, OSPAR MPAs and the
Ramsar Convention for wetland protection. Note that national and
international protection status is shown independently of each other.
Currently, management plans have been implemented
in 28 BSPAs. In addition, draft plans exist
for six BSPAs, but have not been implemented, and
management plans are under preparation for 35
sites. For 20 designated BSPAs, the management
plan either does not exist or the database does not
contain any information about it.
Representativeness
To contribute to the protection of the entire ecosystem,
the full range of species, habitats, landscapes
and ecological processes present within a
sea area should be adequately represented within
the BSPA network.
Species: In the HELCOM BSPA database, a total
of 207 species are reported to exist within the 89
designated BSPAs. The majority are birds, including
nesting, migratory and wintering species
(Figure 7.4). Only 10% of the reported species are
plants, 5% mammals and 1% algae. Most of the
21 vascular plant species reported to be included
within the current network are terrestrial and
fewer than 25% are partially submerged species.
However, for 31 BSPAs in the database there is
a complete lack of information on species. It is
obvious that the database is deficient in information
on widespread and common species.
The HELCOM lists of threatened and/or declining
species and biotopes/habitats of the Baltic Sea
area (HELCOM 2007b) contain 61 species that
are in urgent need of protective measures and for
which protection is also highlighted in the BSAP.
Bird and mammal species on the HELCOM list
are well-represented in BSPAs, whereas the other
taxa are more poorly represented. According
to the BSPA database, 29 of the 61 threatened
and/or declining species are not included in the
current BSPA network.