Management of HELCOM MPAs

Human activities within the HELCOM MPAs can be restricted through management plans or measures, which are developed to prevent conflicts of interest and to ensure that specific nature conservation goals are reached. The management plans regulate or compensate harmful human activities through different actions, such as restricting activities during a certain time or in a certain area, prohibiting certain activities completely, restoring degraded areas, maintaining sustainable and traditional use when appropriate and substituting certain materials or substances with less harmful ones. Activities regulated in the HELCOM MPAs are for example constructions, dredging, aquaculture, installation of wind-farms, hunting and fishing. 

Each HELCOM MPA shall have a unique management plan or management measures drafted for the area in question. In addition, some MPAs have specific targeted management plans for specific parts of the MPA. Of the 176 established HELCOM MPAs 127 (72%) currently have a management plan in force, and 39 HELCOM MPAs (22%) have a management plan under preparation (Figure 1).

* former BSPAs