We are currently seeking an experienced Data Coordinator to join our Secretariat team, to further develop HELCOM’s data collection and management work, and to implement the HELCOM Data and Information Strategy. The Data Coordinator’s main responsibility is overseeing HELCOM’s data collection, management and sharing activities, as well as implementing data solutions and facilitating data submissions. Closing date: 13 April 2025
We are currently seeking to recruit an enthusiastic communications intern to support the communications activities for Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Day for the EU-funded PROTECT BALTIC project. The tasks require a creative individual with strong attention to detail, a process-oriented mindset, and effective planning skills. An interest in the environment, and marine protection in particular, is an advantage. Closing date: 20 April 2025
The Baltic Sea Action Plan Fund has opened a new call for proposals aiming to improve the ecological state oThe Baltic Sea Action Plan Fund has opened a call for proposals, providing a funding opportunity for projects addressing key challenges facing the Baltic Sea. The fund can finance projects with the objectives and activities outlined in the Baltic Sea Action Plan to commercial or non-commercial partners for projects in the Baltic Sea region and its catchment area. Proposals will be accepted until 18 April.
The Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) Fund is an early-stage financing mechanism dedicated to expediting the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, which includes 200 concrete actions to be carried out by 2030, with the ultimate goal of creating a healthier Baltic Sea.
The BSAP Fund has now opened a new call for proposals, providing a funding opportunity for projects that address key challenges facing the Baltic Sea. New project proposals will be accepted until 18 April.
Financing can be awarded to commercial or non-commercial actors for projects in the Baltic Sea Region and its catchment area for demonstration purposes, project preparation and development, project implementation and institutional support. Applicants and projects that have previously received funding from the BSAP Fund are also eligible to apply. Read more about the application process and eligibility criteria and find the application form on nefco.int/BSAP.
Concrete projects supporting the Baltic Sea Action Plan
Since the establishment of the BSAP Fund in 2010, contributions from Finland and Sweden have totalled EUR 15 million, enabling the Fund to finance more than 70 projects. During the Fund’s 2023 financing round, EUR 1 million was granted for ten new projects to improve the health of the Baltic Sea.
Sectors financed by the BSAP Fund must address one or several areas highlighted in the Action Plan, including biodiversity, eutrophication, hazardous substances, sea-based activities and the elimination of HELCOM Hotspots.
If you have questions regarding the application process or the eligibility criteria, you can contact bsapfund@nefco.int
About the Baltic Sea Action Plan Fund
The aim of the Baltic Sea Action Plan Fund is to help fund concrete projects, large or small, initialise promising solutions that can be scaled up, regardless of national borders. Since its establishment, the fund has financed over 70 projects. Currently, 15 projects are ongoing and 59 have been completed. These projects are spread out across the Baltic Sea watershed, including in Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden. The Baltic Sea Action Plan Fund is co-managed by Nefco – the Nordic Green Bank – and the Nordic Investment Bank and funded by the governments of Finland and Sweden.
For further information about the BSAP Fund, please contact:
Dennis Hamro-Drotz, BSAP Fund Manager/Senior Programme Manager, Nefco dennis.hamro-drotz@nefco.int, +358 10 6180 641
The HELCOM Stakeholder Conference 2025, a one-day online event dedicated to discussing hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea, will take place on 31 March 2025, from 10:00 to 16:00 EEST. Under the theme of the ‘One Baltic’ approach, the conference will explore the latest advancements in applying a holistic approach to managing hazardous substances to ensure a cleaner and healthier Baltic Sea.
The event is open to everyone, but pre-registration is required. Registration for this event has now closed.
The conference aims to bring together stakeholders from HELCOM Contracting Parties, industry representatives, NGOs, international organizations, civil society groups, and other interested individuals to discuss key actions supporting the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) goal: ‘A Baltic Sea unaffected by hazardous substances’.
The discussions will focus on implementing BSAP actions and the upcoming Regional Action Plan on Hazardous Substances (RAP HAZ), set to be finalized in 2025. Key topics include the current state of hazardous substances in the region, the impact of PFAS regulations, the risks associated with pharmaceuticals in the Baltic Sea, and the importance of a holistic regional approach to managing hazardous substances.
For more information and to view the provisional programme on the event page.
HELCOM has updated its data page to offer a more accessible and user-friendly experience, ensuring that all its data products are now easier to find and navigate.
HELCOM collects and maintains a wealth of data on the Baltic Sea, organizing it into various thematic databases accessible through online data portals and services. The newly updated page provides a clearer overview of these resources, making it simpler for users to explore and utilize the information.
HELCOM’s data products can be categorised in four groups:
Databases: HELCOM hosts, co-hosts or contributes to 12 databases, covering key topics such as shipping accidents and oil spills. These databases are regularly updated, following regionally agreed reporting formats and quality assurance procedures.
Data services: Beyond data access, HELCOM also offers data services that enable machine-to-machine communication, allowing GIS professionals, developers, and researchers to seamlessly integrate HELCOM datasets into their workflows.
Data services: A variety of software tools, developed specifically for HELCOM assessments, are also available through HELCOM’s GitHub repositories.
Rüdiger Strempel, Executive Secretary of HELCOM, reflects on Finland’s special connection with HELCOM and the organisation’s regional efforts to protect the Baltic Sea
On 18th March 1974, the Finnish Postal Service issued a stamp and first-day cover to commemorate the Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area. Four days later, the Conference adopted the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, or Helsinki Convention. This was a milestone in a process in which Finland has continuously played a pivotal part. In this article, I would like to recall why a story that began more than fifty years ago still matters – and the special role of Finland in writing it.
The commemorative stamp depicted a flock of seagulls above a deep blue sea and bore the inscription “The Baltic Sea – our environment” in Finnish and Swedish. Sadly, however, by the 1970s, that environment was severely compromised, and the Baltic Sea was considered the most polluted sea in the world. Without decisive action on the part of the Baltic Sea states, it was at risk of spiralling into the abyss of ecological apocalypse.
Regional efforts to protect the Baltic Sea since 1972
In 1972, Finland spurred those states to action. An initiative that Finland, due to its special role in the bipolar Cold War world order, was uniquely well-placed to take and that matched the overall fabric of the country’s foreign policy. In the course of 1973, it hosted and chaired three intergovernmental expert meetings on the Baltic Sea in Helsinki, bringing together the then-seven Baltic Sea states: Denmark, Finland, the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, Poland, the Soviet Union, and Sweden.
These efforts were crowned with success, and by early 1974, the process was brought to a successful conclusion at the Diplomatic Conference.
It took another six years for the agreement, a front- runner in international marine environmental law as the first international treaty globally to protect a regional sea from all sources of pollution, to enter into force. During that time, the governing body provided for in the Convention, the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), met six times in a provisional format, the so-called Interim Commission (IC).
Finland hosted and chaired all six of those meetings, as well as roughly one-fourth of the meetings of the technical Working Groups established by the IC. It also provided an interim Secretariat. In 1980, the Commission’s first regular meeting occurred in Helsinki, and the permanent HELCOM Secretariat was established. It became the first international organisation to permanently establish its headquarters in the Finnish capital, where it is still located today.
And Finland’s close involvement with HELCOM continued beyond the inception phase. As the organisation’s host country, it has continuously supported HELCOM work both financially and substantively. Finland has hosted four HELCOM Ministerial Meetings – more than any other country. Moreover, when the geopolitical changes of the late 1980s and early 1990s and advancements in international environmental law and policy necessitated a revision of the Convention, Finland again played a key role in facilitating this process and ensuring that HELCOM remained fit for purpose.
In April 1992, Helsinki’s iconic Finlandia Hall was the venue of another Diplomatic Conference under Finnish chairmanship, which adopted the revised Helsinki Convention. The 1992 Convention has ten Contracting Parties, all Baltic Sea States, and the European Union, reflecting the geopolitical realignment following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. In force since 2000, it has stood the test of time and remains the basis of HELCOM’s work to this day.
And that work is crucially important. Water knows no boundaries, and no one country can achieve marine protection on its own. For five decades, HELCOM has provided Baltic Sea states with a platform for the regional exchange, dialogue and cooperation required to tackle the formidable challenges faced by their common sea. It is a multilateral success story, leading to improvements in the state of the Baltic Sea environment and thereby benefitting nature and people across the region.
Yet, it has not been an unqualified success. The condition of the Sea remains deplorable, as documented by the third Holistic Assessment of the State of the Baltic Sea (HOLAS 3), published by HELCOM in 2023. Already ailing, our sea is severely affected by the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. But the assessment also offers hope. Decades of monitoring and assessment under the auspices of HELCOM have vastly expanded our knowledge of the Baltic Sea.
Moreover, HOLAS 3, the most comprehensive assessment of its kind to date, also shows that if duly implemented, regional measures will lead to an improvement in the sea’s condition.
HELCOM’s 2021 Baltic Sea Action Plan (2021 BSAP) lays out a broad range of such measures, along with a roadmap for their implementation, clearly indicating what needs to be done and by when. While the costs of such measures may seem daunting, the high cost of inaction, also evidenced by HOLAS 3, makes them a critically important long-term investment that we cannot afford not to make.
Achieving good environmental status for the Baltic Sea
Fifty years after HELCOM’s establishment, the organisation’s job is far from done, and protecting the Baltic Sea requires continued, sustained multilateral efforts. It can, therefore, reasonably be said that if HELCOM did not exist, it would need to be invented. Fortunately, however, it does exist.
While the current challenging geopolitical situation has forced the organisation to modify its operational procedures, it remains largely on track in implementing the 2021 BSAP. In line with the bold vision that originated in Finland over half a century ago, HELCOM is poised to continue catalysing and crystallising joint regional efforts towards achieving good environmental status for the Baltic Sea – our environment.
This article was first published in Open Access Government. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of HELCOM or its Contracting Parties.
For HELCOM, 2024 has been a truly special year, marking the organization’s 50th anniversary. On April 25th, 2024, this milestone was celebrated with a special event in Riga, Latvia. Hosted in the impressive Ziedonis Hall at the Latvian National Library, the occasion brought together distinguished speakers, panelists, and approximately 150 participants from across and beyond the Baltic Sea region.
To conclude our 50th anniversary celebrations, we are delighted to present a commemorative volume. This publication features the insightful and thought-provoking contributions of the speakers, panelists, and moderators from the Riga event. It also includes rarely seen images that capture moments from HELCOM’s 50-year history.
I’d heard about the original Ecosfera game, and when discussing it with Owen, he jokingly suggested it could be a great way to illustrate how the Baltic Sea ecosystem functions and how humans impact it. We then approached Albert at Julibert Games, the creator of Ecosfera, to see what he thought of the idea.
Owen: When a call for proposals from the Nessling Foundation came up, we decided to go for it. We developed a plan for a game that would be fun to play while embedding information and messages aimed at the public and educational organizations around the Baltic Sea. Fortunately, the Nessling Foundation recognised the potential in our concept!
How did you go about developing and testing the game?
Owen: First, we had to play a lot of the original Ecosfera game to understand its dynamics, intricacies and variations. From there, we discussed how to adjust the gameplay to fit the Baltic Sea, identify the key species and habitats to include and make it more educational.
Jannica: One of the biggest challenges has been balancing the simplification of the complex the Baltic Sea ecosystem while maintaining the ecological relevance. But it’s amazing how well the ecological and social processes we work with daily translated into a card-game!
Owen: The level of interest and excitement about the game has been incredible – not just from the HELCOM Secretariat staff but also from members of HELCOM Expert and Working Groups. They have given us valuable feedback on habitat and species lists as well as the game logic.
Jannica: We launched the first prototypes of the game at SPIEL, the world’s largest boardgame fair in Germany. Over four days, nearly 350 people tested the game! We have also conducted multiple testing rounds with topic experts to resolve inconsistencies and fix imbalances.
Owen: We also took the game to a primary school in Helsinki for kids to test-play. They had a lot of fun, and their feedback gave us some useful insights on marketing the game to suitable age groups.
HELCOM Secretariat staff testing the game prototype
What do you personally like most about the game?
Owen: The artwork is really striking, but my main hope is that the game makes our work more accessible and helps inspire the change in mindset we so desperately need.
Jannica: I love how the game requires the players to work together to solve problems! This collaboration is a good reflection of reality. The game mimics a real socio-ecological system, albeit a highly simplified one. I also really like how it explores our relationship with the environment.
What can we expect to learn from the game?
Owen: Players will discover that the Baltic Sea is a fascinating ecosystem full of interesting species, and that us humans are part of this ecosystem. While we can cause harm, we also have the power to provide solutions or prevent damage in the first place. The educational aspects are built subtly into the gameplay. Additional details will be available for those who want to dig deeper, but players can also pick this information up naturally as they play.
Who should play the game?
Jannica: Anyone aged 8 and up! The game includes several levels of difficulty and two levels of complexity, allowing for diverse gameplay experiences. The basic version is language-independent using images, symbols and scientific names. While the included rulebook is in English, we plan to provide translations in all Baltic Sea languages as free online downloads.
Owen: We have also teamed up with Reaktor to digitalize the boardgame, making it accessible to a wider audience.
Ecosfera Baltica is due to launch early 2025. To ensure your copy of Ecosfera Baltica once it is ready, you can sign up for the Ecosfera Baltica Kickstarter campaign. The campaign is set to launch on 1 March 2025, and games will be delivered by June 2025.
A groundbreaking initiative is harnessing the power of gaming to inspire action for the restoration of the Baltic Sea. Ecosfera Baltica, developed by HELCOM and Julibert Games, merges science, sustainability, and strategy into an engaging and fun collaborative game experience aimed at all ages.
The Baltic Sea faces significant environmental challenges, as highlighted by the State of the Baltic Sea 2023 report. Ecosfera Baltica brings these findings to life by educating players on the complex interplay of ecosystems, biodiversity, and the impact our activities have on the sea. Available in both a tabletop boardgame and a digital version, the game encourages cooperation, critical thinking, and empathy while emphasising actionable solutions for a sustainable future.
“Games have been proven to help players foster empathy, enhance problem-solving skills, and encourage critical thinking, ultimately driving social change by encouraging players to take action in the real world,” concludes Jannica Haldin, who coordinates the project at HELCOM together with Owen Rowe. In a recent educational workshop, participants examined how goksites zonder limieten can integrate these game-based benefits to design more engaging and responsible gambling experiences. By leveraging the insights from the workshop, developers are better equipped to create platforms that not only entertain but also contribute positively to users’ cognitive and social development.
The game features scientifically accurate scenarios, multiple levels of complexity, and accessibility options to appeal to players of all ages and backgrounds. Funded by the Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation, Ecosfera Baltica is set for release in early 2025.
The digital multiplayer version, developed in collaboration with Reaktor, aims to make the game more accessible, thereby expanding its reach to schools and other educational institutions across the Baltic Sea region.
How to access the game?
Both versions of the game (digital and tabletop board game) are due to launch early 2025. To ensure your copy of Ecosfera Baltica board game once it is ready, you can sign up for the Ecosfera Baltica Kickstarter campaign. You will then be notified once the campaign launches on 1 March 2025, with further details on how to place on order.
This event will focus on strategies to restore marine ecosystems in the Nordic region, presenting insights from leading environmental organizations in this field.
With growing political focus on marine environments—particularly in light of the new EU regulation on nature restoration—understanding the socio-economic implications and costs of marine restoration measures has become essential.
The recording and the report from the event are now available.
Laura Wendling (SINTEF) Sanna Kuningas (LUKE) Federica Montesanto (Aarhus University) Liisa Saikkonen (SYKE) Moderator: Mikelis Bendiks
11:45-12:00
Wrap up
Moderator: Mikelis Bendiks
Pathways to restoring Nordic Seas
A unique and innovative element of this event was the creation of an AI-generated video that synthesized the insights and responses provided by the audience. Before the event, participants were invited to answer three key questions about marine restoration.
What are the main challenges?
What is needed to overcome them?
If we overcome the challenges, what can restoration do for the health of the marine environment?
This AI-driven approach allowed for an engaging, data-driven summary of the audience’s input, bringing their voices to life in a format that added depth to the event.
Live Illustration
Throughout the event, key moments, ideas, and themes were captured visually in real-time by a live illustrator, who translated the complex concepts being discussed into an accessible and visually-engaging narrative.
Credit: Doti at Illustrated Live – katiechappell.com
By translating the presentations and panel discussion insights into illustrations, this creative process not only helped to simplify complex concepts but also deepened the audience’s engagement with the topics being discussed.
Live illustration is an effective tool for enhancing communication and audience engagement, as it provides a dynamic and creative way to summarize and highlight key points. It helps capture the essence of the event in a visual form, allowing the ideas to come to life and giving participants a clearer connection between the discussions and the practical implications of marine restoration.
The illustrations also serve as a valuable resource for reinforcing learning and ensuring that important concepts are retained long after the event has concluded. This method of communication is particularly beneficial in complex subjects like marine restoration, where diverse and technical topics can sometimes be difficult to fully absorb. Live illustration helps make these discussions more memorable, turning abstract concepts into tangible representations that foster a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities within the field.
Audience: Aimed at researchers, policymakers, environmental economists, and marine restoration practitioners, and anyone else interested.
Join us for a pivotal conversation on developing sustainable, cost-effective approaches to protect and restore the invaluable Nordic marine environment.
The Nordic Council of Ministers’ Working Group for Environment and Economy (NME) and HELCOM will jointly host a webinar on cost-effective marine restoration on 4 December 2024.
The Baltic Sea, one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world, faces severe environmental threats, particularly due to eutrophication resulting from unsustainable agricultural practices.
In a collaborative effort to tackle this pressing issue, a free hybrid seminar and networking event will bring together governments, scientists, policymakers, the agriculture industry, and concerned citizens to explore solutions that can mitigate the environmental impact on this crucial marine ecosystem.
The event will be held on Friday, October 11, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM (EEST), at Eurooppasali (Malminkatu 16, Helsinki, Finland) and online. It is open to anyone interested in learning about or contributing to the ongoing efforts to protect the Baltic Sea.
This event coincides with the arrival of the Save The Baltic Sea (STBS) expedition in Helsinki, part of an environmental campaign and walking expedition that began in Lithuania.
The seminar is organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Finland, HELCOM, and Save The Baltic Sea.
The event will conclude with networking and a light lunch, allowing attendees to engage with experts and stakeholders committed to protecting the Baltic Sea.
