An EU co-funded project “Actions to evaluate and identify effective measures to reach GES in the Baltic Sea marine region” (HELCOM ACTION).
The HELCOM ACTION project aimed to contribute to the update of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) by 2021 and to be used by HELCOM Contracting Parties that are also EU Member States in updating and implementing their MSFD Programme of Measures.
The project evaluated the effectiveness of existing measures, focussing on several pertinent topics, such as: by-catch of mammals and birds, impacts on the seabed, marine protected areas, and eutrophication. The project also analysed the natural conditions that influence the achievement of Good Environmental Status (GES) in the Baltic Sea region, including impacts of projected changes in climate. Furthermore, the project developed an approach for regional sufficiency of measures (SOM) analysis to identify potential gaps in achieving GES, and estimated cost-effectiveness of tentative new measures to fill these gaps.
Funded by: European Union grant.
Grant agreement number: 110661/2018/794637/SUB/ENV.C.2.
Project implementation time: 01.2019-05.2021.
Project website: https://helcom.fi/helcom-at-work/projects/action/.
Based on the sub-contract with the coordinating partner HELCOM secretariat, AKTiiVS (Kristīne Pakalniete) was involved in the project’s work package 6 “Sufficiency of measures”, which aimed to develop an approach for assessing the sufficiency of existing measures to achieve GES, to implement the approach for selected topics, to identify the need for new measures and to estimate cost-effectiveness of tentative new measures, supporting the HELCOM BSAP update.
For the results of the HELCOM ACTION project see the project’s website https://helcom.fi/helcom-at-work/projects/action/.
Relevant references:
HELCOM ACTION (2021) Sufficiency of existing measures to achieve good status in the Baltic Sea (Summary report). Available here.
HELCOM ACTION (2021) Cost effectiveness of proposed new measures for the Baltic Sea Action Plan 2021. Available here.