Protect Baltic

Etusivu
Suomi
Helsinki
Protect Baltic

Reittiohjeet Verkkosivusto

We're celebrating MPA Day on 1 August 2025. Register now for our webinar: https://protectbaltic.eu/mpa-day-2025

24/09/2026

🌿 Discover Vilm: a small island shaped by nature in the German Baltic Sea

🔎 Explore the forests, coasts and shallow waters of Vilm in our latest MPA highlight!

📍 Just off the coast of Rügen, this 94-hectare island brings together ancient beech forests, steep coastal cliffs, beaches, reedbeds, salt meadows and the shallow waters of the Greifswalder Bodden.

🐦 Vilm provides habitat for species including sand martins, goosanders, grey herons and white-tailed eagles. During spring and autumn migration, thousands of waterbirds gather in the productive waters surrounding the island to rest and feed.

🐟 Beneath the surface, the Bodden supports perch, pike, pikeperch, flounder, herring and garfish, and is an important spawning area for western Baltic spring-spawning herring.

🌳 Protected as a nature reserve since 1936, Vilm has been shaped by almost 90 years of formal protection. Here, old trees fall and decay, cliffs retreat, sediment moves, beaches and spits develop, and natural processes are given space to continue.

🌊 From ancient forests to spawning fish and migratory birds, Vilm shows how closely connected terrestrial, coastal and marine habitats can be.

🔗 Discover Vilm and the nature that makes this small Baltic island so special by following the link in our bio.

22/09/2026

🌊 PROTECT BALTIC is featured in the latest issue of EU Research!

Our article, Protecting the Baltic Together, takes a closer look at how we are working to make the Baltic Sea’s marine protected areas function as a connected and effective network, bringing together science, practical tools and cooperation across borders.

It explores our work on everything from species and habitat modelling and ecosystem services to human pressures, management effectiveness and the Protection Optimization Framework, as well as the importance of ensuring that what we develop can be used by countries and MPA managers in practice.

A great opportunity to showcase the work of the PROTECT BALTIC team and our partners across the Baltic Sea region. 💙

👉 Read the full feature in EU Research, Autumn 2026, pp. 28–30,
or access directly in our bio!

21/09/2026

What happens when you put 3 years of PROTECT BALTIC work in front of the people managing marine protected areas?

Last week, we had the opportunity to find out at the MPA MaNET meeting on Vilm, Germany. 🌊

Over several days, we took MPA managers through the tools, methods and approaches we have been developing to support more effective marine protection in the Baltic Sea.

And there was a lot to share.

🗺️ Understanding what we are protecting: species distributions, habitats and communities, biodiversity hotspots and how these may change under future climate scenarios
🌿 Understanding what nature provides: approaches for assessing and mapping ecosystem services
⚓ Understanding what puts protected areas under pressure: human activities, pressures and impacts, including our Spatial Pressures and Impact Assessment (SPIA) tool
🛠️ Understanding what we can do about it: a regional classification system for management measures
📊 Understanding whether management is working: the MANEA and AMMEA approaches for assessing management effectiveness
💻 Bringing the information together: and giving them a first look at the developing MPA Portal

We also stepped away from the screens for a guided tour of the Vilm Nature Reserve, giving us the chance to explore the remarkable ancient forests and natural environment surrounding the meeting venue.

For us, this was about much more than presenting results.

The people managing MPAs are among the intended users of much of what we are developing. Their experience helps us understand whether our approaches make sense in practice, what information is most useful, where things need to be clearer and what could make our tools more valuable in day-to-day management.

Seeing so many strands of our work come together in one meeting was also a rewarding moment. There is still plenty of work ahead, but there is now a substantial body of tools, methods, data and knowledge to put into the hands of MPA managers and, importantly, to improve with their input.

A big thank you to everyone who tested, questioned, discussed and shared their experiences with us. That feedback is exactly what we need as we take the next steps ❤

04/09/2026

🌊 Three years of building the pieces. Now it’s time to put them together.

This week, PROTECT BALTIC partners gathered in Helsinki for our 2026 Annual Meeting, marking the completion of Phase 1 and the shift from building the foundations to putting them into use.

And quite a lot has been built:

🗺️ 587 species with Baltic-wide distribution maps, up ~2,400%
🧩 27 characteristic ecological communities identified
⚓ 12,000+ spatial impact layers produced
🌱 BALM, connecting biodiversity, ecosystem functions, services and societal benefits
🛡️ 3,455 protected sites brought together in a regional spatial dataset
📑 1,100+ MPA management plans collected
📊 MANEA and AMMEA, new approaches for assessing MPA management effectiveness
🎯 New approaches for ecological protection targets and ecological coherence
🧭 The first regional Baltic Sea Protection Optimization Framework
🌿 The first Regional Action Plan on Benthic Habitat Restoration and Toolbox
💻 The foundations of the Baltic Sea MPA Portal

The real value comes from connecting these pieces.

Together, they can help us understand what needs protecting, where protection works, where it falls short, and where action could make the greatest difference.

🧩 The pieces are in place. Now we start putting them to work.

🔗 Read the full Phase 1 recap via the link in bio.

27/08/2026

🧩🌊 Connecting the pieces: shaping the picture of a regional MPA network

Marine Protected Areas don’t exist in isolation.

Species move between them. Habitats are connected. Pressures cross borders. To understand how effectively MPAs protect biodiversity, we therefore need to look beyond individual sites and understand the network they form together.

After close to three years of collaborative work under HELCOM and supported by Coalition Clean Baltic - CCB through PROTECT BALTIC, the Baltic Sea countries have compiled and harmonized the most comprehensive regional picture of spatial marine protection to date. 🌍

The work has resulted in 3,455 protected sites associated with spatial polygons across the Baltic Sea, bringing information from different countries, jurisdictions and protection frameworks together into a harmonized regional dataset.

And this is just the foundation. 🔎

The data will support:
🧩 assessment of the ecological coherence of the Baltic Sea MPA network
📍 spatial protection optimization analysis
💻 development of the Baltic Sea MPA Portal
🌱 better understanding of where protection is strong, where gaps remain and where future action can make the greatest difference

We spoke with Axel Haldin and .haldin about the work behind the dataset, why network thinking matters, and what this new regional picture makes possible.

🔗 Read the full story (link in bio)

27/08/2026

🌊 Where is your favourite place at the Baltic Sea?

A beach you return to every summer? A favourite island? A quiet spot along the coast? Or somewhere you’ve never been, but would love to discover?

Today is Baltic Sea Day!
As part of our Baltic Sea Day activities, we’re inviting you to help us fill the Baltic Sea with the places that matter to you.

Add your favourite Baltic Sea place to our interactive map, then show us one place you’d like to visit next.

Choose your marine emoji 🐟🐚🦭, drop it on the map and watch our shared picture of the Baltic Sea grow.

If you’re joining Baltic Sea Day events in Helsinki today, you can add your places to HELCOM's physical map there too.

👉 Add your places to the map

So, where is your favourite Baltic Sea place? Add to our map (link in bio)

26/08/2026

🌱🌊 Restoration happens locally. But we don’t have to figure out how to do it alone.

Yesterday at SERE2026 in Brest, France, PROTECT BALTIC brought together experts to explore how regional cooperation can help turn shared knowledge into coordinated restoration action.

Using the Baltic Sea and HELCOM cooperation as a practical example, the workshop looked at three areas where working together across borders can make a real difference:

📊 Shared data and infrastructure to build a stronger common evidence base
🧰 Exchange of restoration methods and experiences so knowledge can travel between countries and projects
🗺️ Strategic regional approaches to help connect individual restoration efforts and support implementation at a larger scale

With implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation now firmly on the agenda, the discussion highlighted the value of connecting action on the ground with cooperation at sea-basin level.

A big thank you to Lasse Kurvinen, Petra Kääriä, Javier Lenzi and Georg Martin, and to everyone who joined the workshop and contributed to the discussion. 🙌

01/08/2026

💙 What do I love about the Baltic Sea? 🌊

For us, it's more than just a sea. It's childhood memories, peaceful moments by the shore, incredible wildlife, and a place that connects us to nature.

To celebrate 2026, we've brought together the voices of some people who share what the Baltic Sea means to them.

Their stories are a reminder that protecting our seas starts with the connections we build to them.

Watch the video and let us know: What do you love most about the Baltic Sea?

Because ocean protection needs human connection. 🌊💙

01/08/2026

🌊 What do Europeans love about their seas? 💙

To celebrate 2026, we asked people from across Europe what their local seas mean to them and what they believe MPAs should achieve.

From the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, one message stood out: people care deeply about healthy marine ecosystems, thriving wildlife, and protecting these special places for future generations.

Our new article explores the results of the survey, alongside an interactive platform where you can discover what people from each of Europe's six sea basins had to say.

📖 Read the article and explore the results via the links in our bio.

What do you love most about your sea? 🌊💙

01/08/2026

Happy 2026! 🌊💙

Today we celebrate the Marine Protected Areas that protect our ocean's extraordinary wildlife, habitats and the communities that depend on them.

Because ocean protection needs human connection.

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00160

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http://protectbaltic.eu/

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