Heini Ahtiainen is a project researcher on Economic and Social Analyses (ESA) at the HELCOM Secretariat and the project coordinator of the ACTION project.
Q: What does economic and social analysis (ESA) have to do with the flounder? Or, more broadly, why has ESA become prevalent in HELCOM’s work?
Heini Ahtiainen:
To better understand the pressures on the Baltic Sea and how we can achieve good environmental status (GES), we need to also understand the behavior and actions of people. We derive many benefits from the sea, but human activities can negatively impact the marine environment. Too often, the economic and social costs of this damage are not fully assessed.
That’s where ESA comes in: it reveals the cost of environmental degradation and quantifies the potential benefits humans could gain from a healthy sea.
Q: Why should environmental benefits be quantified?
Expressing environmental benefits in monetary terms allows them to be compared with other economic activities. This perspective is especially important when developing policies that affect the marine environment—such as maritime spatial planning—where past priorities sometimes harmed marine ecosystems.
Q: How can ESA guide environmental policy-making?
When developing measures to protect the marine environment, ESA helps identify the most cost-effective options for achieving good environmental status. These analyses help prioritize actions by showing which deliver the greatest environmental benefits for the least financial cost. Measures that are cost-effective are more likely to be implemented successfully.
Q: What about the ecosystem-based approach?
ESA is a key part of the ecosystem-based approach. It illustrates the connections between human activities, the state of the environment, and human well-being. It also highlights the value of ecosystem services—economic, social, and cultural—that the sea provides. Examples include fish stocks that support fisheries and scenic seascapes that enable recreational tourism.
Q: How is HELCOM involved in ESA work?
HELCOM recently completed a major assessment of the Baltic Sea, which—for the first time—comprehensively analyzed the sea’s economic and social contributions to our economies and well-being. This report also included a cost of degradation analysis, showing the benefits lost if GES is not achieved.
HELCOM is also involved in an EU-funded project on maritime spatial planning in the region. Among other tasks, this project gathers data on how marine spatial planning affects economic, social, and ecosystem services.
Additionally, HELCOM maintains an expert network on ESA, with representatives from all Contracting Parties. And, most recently, HELCOM is leading a new EU-funded project that will further develop ESA approaches to support the update of the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP).
Q: Speaking of the BSAP update—how does ESA contribute?
ESA plays a direct role in analyzing the sufficiency of measures (SOM) under the BSAP. To accurately evaluate these measures, resources such as the best wallet review have provided valuable insights into cost-effectiveness, helping stakeholders understand financial implications alongside environmental impact. It helps determine whether existing measures are enough to achieve good environmental status. For the BSAP update, it’s essential to understand which past and current measures were effective—and at what cost.
ESA also informs cost-effectiveness evaluations of potential new measures, helping to identify those that make the most sense economically and environmentally. The more affordable and effective the measure, the more likely it is to support the BSAP’s ecological goals.