30 Years of Baltic Sea Stewardship Marked With New Safeguards

HELSINKI, Finland, March 5, 2004 (ENS) - "The future of the Baltic Sea is in our hands. We all have a responsibility to keep the Baltic alive," declared Finnish President Tarja Halonen as she opened the 30th anniversary annual meeting of the Helsinki Commission here on Tuesday. The meeting concluded yesterday with nine new recommendations on measures to prevent pollution of the Baltic Sea.

The Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through cooperation between the governments bordering the Baltic - Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

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

Delegates at the meeting defined HELCOM's future role in the light of the EU enlargement set to take place on May 1 that will bring four Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland - into the European Union.

Map of the Baltic Sea and neighboring countries showing the drainage basin in darker green (Map courtesy HELCOM)

The HELCOM meeting was preceded by a special Baltic Youth Forum involving students from many countries around the Baltic Sea and abroad, and climaxed in a special HELCOM Jubilee Session held yesterday to mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Convention.

Future priority areas for HELCOM, delegates decided, include monitoring and assessing the state of the entire sea including the efficiency of protection measures, curbing eutrophication, preventing pollution from hazardous substances, nature conservation and protection of biodiversity, and ensuring safety of navigation and response to accidents.

All these responsibilities shall be tackled using an integrated management approach, the meeting affirmed.

The meeting adopted nine new and revised recommendations on measures to prevent pollution around the Baltic Sea. They include new measures to combat pollution from fish farming and by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as well as to improve winter navigation.

The Baltic states together occupy a key transit location for Russian oil exports. They are entirely dependent on Russian natural gas imports to meet their domestic consumption needs.

A new umbrella recommendation relates to the use of best available techniques (BATs) throughout the catchment area.

Chair of the Helsinki Commission Dr. Inese Vaidere is a former Latvian Environment Minister. (Photo courtesy HELCOM)

In order to make the scientific basis for political decisionmaking more transparent, HELCOM has adopted a new data and information strategy to facilitate access to environmental data in HELCOM databases.

A major new pollution load compilation report offers detailed information on the direct inputs of pollutants entering the Baltic Sea in 2000, including nitrogen, phosphorus, mercury, cadmium and lead.

Two new scientific publications examine the role of remote sensing in marine monitoring and the taxonomy of Baltic phytoplankton.

A draft report on environmental problems related to dioxins, including the health risks to people consuming fish from the Baltic Sea, was discussed and is expected to be published in a few months.

Five films were launched this week by the Helsinki Commission to celebrate the beauty of the Baltic Sea region, and to raise awareness of the need to protect the sea. These films are available on the web at: http://www.helcom.fi/ or can be obtained from the HELCOM Secretariat in VHS and DVD format free of charge.

"The Baltic – Sea of Surprises" is a series of four 10 minute films due to be broadcast in many countries this year.

The Baltic Sea needs protection to keep it clean. (Photo courtesy HELCOM)

This project is part of HELCOM's "ecosystem approach to the management of human activities" which aims to make all sectors of society consider their effects on the Baltic marine ecosystems.

HELCOM develops recommendations on measures to prevent pollution of the Baltic Sea which stand on their own, as well as those supplementing existing international regulations.

These nine recommendations were adopted by delegates at this week's meeting.

• Umbrella Recommendation for industrial activities on the effective use of Best Available Techniques (BAT) unifies permit conditions across all the HELCOM Contracting Parties, and provides concise BAT information, including achievable emission levels for particularly hazardous substances, especially those not adequately addressed by European Union legislation.

• Revised Recommendation concerning the elimination of PCBs and polychlorinated terphenyls (PCTs) improves existing EU regulations by including applications with small amounts of PCBs which may add up to large amounts in total, and by extending coverage to the PCBs and PCTs in demolition waste.

• Revised Recommendation on reductions in nutrients and other pollutants leaching from forestry land combines two earlier recommendations.

• Revised Recommendation on measures aimed at the reduction of discharges from fresh water and marine fish farming tightens requirements on nutrient discharges by marine and inland fish farms contained in two earlier recommendations. The pollution from fish farms is not covered by specific regulations in the EU.

• New HELCOM Recommendation “Safety of winter navigation in the Baltic Sea area” deals with the operational safety requirements for ships sailing in ice conditions. The importance of this recommendation is underlined by the increasing shipping activities also in ice covered areas during winter and the fact that neither the IMO nor EU has adequate regulations.

• New HELCOM Recommendation “Assessment of the need for escort towing in tanker transport routes to prevent accidents in the Baltic Sea area” includes requirements to carry out before 1 July 2006 an evaluation of the need for escort towing services for laden oil and chemical tankers along main tanker transport routes where a failure of propulsion or steering of a tanker could result in serious pollution of the sensitive Baltic marine ecosystems.

• Guidelines on granting exceptions for pleasure craft from the obligation to install toilet retention systems in pleasure craft built before January 1, 2000 when this is technically difficult, or when the cost of installation is high compared to the value of the vessel.

• New HELCOM Recommendation “Guidelines for the recommended minimum throughput of oil filtering equipment on board ships” follows the decisions of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee. HELCOM Recommendation 14/6 has been amended in order to promote and accelerate the introduction of new oil filtering technologies on ships.

• Revised HELCOM Recommendation 23/3 "Enhancing the use of pilots in Route T and the Sound by notification to departing ships and establishment of an early warning system" has been modified in order to harmonize it with new IMO resolutions.