HELCOM releases Annual Report on 2010 activities

Helsinki, 15 June (HELCOM Information Service) – The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) today released its annual report on 2010 activities. The report summarizes the activities of HELCOM related to the protection of the Baltic marine environment over the period March 2010 to March 2011. It provides the latest HELCOM assessment of the current trends in the Baltic marine environment, as well as an update on HELCOM’s recent activities aimed at reducing pollution to the Baltic Sea, improving safety of navigation, as well as halting the decline in biodiversity.

“2010 was one of the most eventful years for HELCOM, recording several landmark events, initiatives and achievements that will have a long-term impact on the success of our actions and, on a larger scale, on the future of the Baltic Sea, says Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “We have witnessed renewed commitments and some remarkable progress by the Member States towards achieving the strategic objectives of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to make our region environmentally sustainable, prosperous, accessible and attractive, as well as safe and secure.”

A truly high-profile landmark event of 2010 was the Moscow Ministerial Meeting held on 20 May 2010, where the HELCOM Member States presented their National Implementation Programmes on how they will reach the provisional country-wise pollution reduction targets set in the Baltic Sea Action Plan. They describe how the countries will implement actions to decrease excessive loads of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) which originate in runoff from farmland and inadequately treated municipal sewage causing eutrophication of the sea, and to halt inputs of hazardous substances. This Meeting galvanized national commitments and gave a boost to HELCOM’s pollution reduction efforts which should eventually result in the re-creation of a healthy eco-system of the Baltic Sea by 2021.

Also, a major holistic assessment of the status of the Baltic marine environment was released at the Meeting. This assessment has been prepared to support the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan. All National Implementation Programmes will be measured against this assessment. The latest available data indicate an overall reduction in nutrient pollution loads entering the Baltic Sea as a whole. While some countries have made significant progress towards their provisional nutrient pollution reduction targets, the overall situation is still unacceptable. Excessive loads of nitrogen and phosphorus from land-based sources are still feeding the excessive growth of algae and the spread of lifeless sea bottoms in most of the Baltic Sea’s sub-basins. Countries need to react urgently and apply the pollution reduction measures specified in the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan.

In conjunction with the Moscow Ministerial Meeting, HELCOM also held the first ever Baltic Sea Cities Summit. Major cities, ports, shipping companies, water utilities, international financial institutions and NGOs from around the Baltic Sea discussed and showcased examples of how local actors and stakeholders can contribute to the implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan.

On 1 July 2010, Sweden took over the two-year Chairmanship of HELCOM. Stockholm has indicated that the implementation of the strategic HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan will be a top priority during the Swedish Chairmanship.

The past year saw many new initiatives and activities launched within HELCOM. In 2010, the Commission held an inaugural meeting of the Agriculture and Environment Forum that would address issues related to the protection of the Baltic Sea from pollution originating from farmland. In another bold move, HELCOM and VASAB agreed to jointly initiate the development of coherent Maritime Spatial Planning in the Baltic Sea area.

Additionally, HELCOM countries have successfully proposed new international regulations for sewage discharges from passenger ships, including the designation of the Baltic Sea as a Special Area. The new regulations were approved by IMO in 2010 with view to their adoption in July 2011. Following this legislative development, HELCOM has established a Cooperation Platform on Port Reception Facilities in the Baltic Sea which will generate dialogue among the key stakeholders on the provision of adequate reception facilities for sewage in the Baltic Sea’s passenger ports.

Several major assessments were finalized, including the integrated thematic assessment on hazardous substances; the thematic assessment on maritime activities and the response to accidents at sea; and the implementation report on the status and ecological coherence of the network of Baltic Sea Protected Areas. The latter indicates that over 10.3% of the Baltic marine area is currently covered by BSPAs. With BSPAs and Natura 2000 sites combined, 12% of the Baltic is protected. This means that in 2010, the Year of Biodiversity, the Baltic Sea is the first marine region to achieve the target of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which called for the effective conservation of at least 10% of each of the world’s ecological regions by 2010.

In 2010, HELCOM launched new and proceeded with various on-going projects designed to support the implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan. Also, the Commission conducted an air surveillance operation over the north-western part of the Baltic Proper to search for illegal oil spills as well as a successful major oil disaster response exercise off the coast of Lithuania.

Follow-up:

Activities 2010 Overview http://www.helcom.fi/stc/files/Publications/Proceedings/BSEP127.pdf

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution and to ensure safety of navigation.

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," known as the Helsinki Convention.

For more information, please contact:   

Mr. Nikolay Vlasov
Information Secretary
HELCOM
Tel: +358 (0)46 850 9196
Fax: +358 (0)207 412 645
E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi