PROTECT BALTIC is a direct response to the urgent need to expand marine protected areas in the Baltic Sea to 30%, with 10% under strict protection by 2030.
Three decades of concerted efforts have led to 14-17% of the Baltic Sea being under some form of protection, but with only minimal strict protection measures in place. To meet the targets of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, this coverage of marine protected areas needs to double by 2030. However, the region faces key challenges to do this expansion strategically, including an incomplete knowledge base for making decisions on protection, gaps in the governance system and insufficient use of adaptive management in existing MPAs. PROTECT BALTIC is a newMission project which, together with national actors in the Baltic Sea region, aims to address such barriers within one project and across the full spectrum of marine spatial protection: governance, planning, designation and management. The aim is to enhance and optimise the network of marine protected areas and ensure that protection efforts actually deliver positive biodiversity outcomes.
PROTECT BALTIC secures and maintains a long-term knowledge base to optimise spatial protection efforts, limits negative human impacts on the ecosystem, and analyses and expands on the concept of what needs to be protected, why, where and from what. This captures and addresses evolving needs and the role of spatial protection under the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution. The project also directly implements 32 of the 199 actions outlined in the Baltic Sea Action Plan and provides crucial support for many more.
The project runs until 2028 and is coordinated by the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM). For detailed information about the project and its progress, visit its website: https://protectbaltic.eu