The Baltic Sea needs urgent action. Ecosfera Baltica, a new educational board and online game, transforms science into interactive play — inviting players to work together to restore the sea.

Helsinki, FINLAND – August 28, 2025 –  HELCOM, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, together with Julibert Games and Reaktor, today launched a new game where players team up with the shared mission of saving the Baltic Sea. By turning complex ecological concepts into accessible gameplay, the game demonstrates how play can foster environmental understanding and inspire action for a more sustainable future.

Ecosfera Baltica is an educational, cooperative multiplayer game that immerses players in the fragile marine ecosystem of the Baltic Sea. Offered both as a classic board game and a free interactive online version, it invites players to team up, make strategic decisions, and tackle environmental threats, all while having fun.

The Baltic Sea’s condition is becoming increasingly critical, as pollution, marine biodiversity loss, and a changing climate push its ecosystems. Rooted in science and inspired by the findings of HELCOM’s State of the Baltic Sea 2023 report, Ecosfera Baltica encourages players to broaden their understanding of ecological principles, marine species and habitats and most importantly: the value of collaboration.

“It is amazing how well the complex Baltic Sea ecosystem can be translated into a board and online game,” said Jannica Haldin from HELCOM. “Ecosfera Baltica lets us explore our relationship with the environment. While we can cause harm, we also have the power to provide solutions or prevent damage. The game has strong educational value, but these aspects are subtly built into the gameplay as the main focus is on a varied and exciting gaming experience”.

Designed for players aged 8 and up, the game is colorblind-friendly and largely language-independent. Rulebooks are currently offered in eight languages: English, Finnish, Swedish, Estonian, Danish, German, Russian, and Lithuanian, with more Baltic Sea languages on the way. To support environmental education, over 1,500 copies of the board game will be distributed free of charge to schools, libraries, and public institutions across the Baltic Sea region. The digital version, developed together with Reaktor, is open-access and globally available.

“For Reaktor, the development of the online version of Ecosfera Baltica has been both rewarding and exploratory. Saving the Baltic Sea is a mission we strongly support as a company, and it was inspiring for our team to figure out how to bring the board game experience online,” says Pauliina Luhtanen, SVP for Gaming at Reaktor.

The development of Ecosfera Baltica was made possible through the support of the Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation.

For anyone interested in trying out Ecosfera Baltica, either as a board game or in its digital version, the game will be showcased today, 28 August, at the EU@Oodi stand on the first floor of Oodi as part of the Baltic Sea Festival, from 12:00 to 19:00.

More information is available at helcom.fi/ecosfera-baltica
The game is live at: https://ecosferabaltica.helcom.fi/
Creating the game – video:  https://youtu.be/50TAUlYYMEY

More information about the online game: https://www.reaktor.com/work/ecosfera-baltica

About HELCOM

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission – also known as the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) – is an intergovernmental organisation (IGO) and a regional sea convention (the Helsinki Convention) in the Baltic Sea area. A regional platform for environmental policy making, HELCOM was established in 1974 to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution. The headquarters of HELCOM, the Secretariat, is in Helsinki.
helcom.fi

About Reaktor

Reaktor is a global technology and design consultancy solving highly complex, mission-critical challenges in the most demanding industry sectors. Reaktor’s expertise spans the full lifecycle of problem-solving — from pioneering data and AI to strategy, design, development, delivery and continuous services — anchored in deep industry know-how and high-performing teams. Founded in 2000, Reaktor has 700 employees and offices in Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, New York, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Stockholm, and Tokyo. Reaktor’s clients include Adidas, HBO, Supercell, Cathay Pacific, and KONE.
reaktor.com

About Julibert Games

Julibert Games is an independent board game publisher from Finland, specializing in educational games and firmly committed to producing games with a minimal environmental footprint. All Julibert Games titles are produced in Europe with carbon-neutral processes using energy sourced entirely from renewable origins.
julibert.com

Media contacts

For HELCOM
Eeva Nyyssönen
Communication Secretary, HELCOM
eeva.nyyssonen@helcom.fi
+358 40 647 3996

For Reaktor
Anne Karumo
Head of Communications and Marketing
anne.karumo@reaktor.com
+358 44 493 8533

The high-level 2025 United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development (the 2025 UN Ocean Conference) will be held in Nice, France, from 9 – 13 June 2025, co-hosted by France and Costa Rica.

HELCOM is involved in organising two side events at the 2025 UN Ocean Conference, both taking place on 11 June 2025. These events are open to the public either via on-site participation or live streaming.

No time to waste: Tackling submerged munitions in European seas

When: 11 June 2025, 18:00-20:00
Where: Research vessel METEOR, Port of Nice, France
Hosted by: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM), the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN), and the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR)

The event aims to highlight the urgent need for joint action and open dialogue concerning submerged munitions in the sea. It will bring together decision makers, offshore infrastructure developers, security agencies, NGOs and representatives from ongoing national and international research projects to address the global issue of munitions in the sea. The event will include a panel discussion on ‘The Baltic Perspective: front-runner regional approaches to addressing a global threat’.

More information and registration for live streaming: https://helcom.fi/no-time-to-waste

The sea knows no borders: transboundary protection for a thriving Baltic

When: 11 June 2025, 09:15-11:00
Where: Le Cabo Coworking, 6 Rue du Congrès, 06200 Nice, France
Hosted by PROTECT BALTIC project

This side event will showcase how Baltic Sea nations have come together to transform their commitment to accelerating marine protection efforts into concrete action. Representatives from key institutions, policymakers, civil society and conservation practitioners will be invited to share their views on the initiative and their experiences in, and expectations of, this unparalleled endeavor to enhance marine biodiversity protection on a sea-basin scale.

More information and registration: https://protectbaltic.eu/un-ocean-conference-2025

Contact

Eeva Nyyssönen
Communications Secretary, HELCOM Secretariat
eeva.nyyssonen@helcom.fi
+358406473996

Paul Trouth
Communications Coordinator, PROTECT BALTIC
HELCOM Secretariat
paul.trouth@helcom.fi
+358447106202

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In a bid to improve our understanding of climate change in the Baltic Sea and identify regional solutions to a global emergency, an international conference will be held online from 9 to 10 March 2022 – the HELCOM Stakeholder Conference 2022 on Climate Change in the Baltic Sea (HSC2022). Parts of the conference will be open to all.

“The HSC2022 conference will not only shed some light on what is currently going on in the Baltic Sea in terms of climate change, but also look at our options for dealing with it in our regional context,” noted Haldin.

Spread over two days, the conference will include an open-to-all webinar on 9 March 2022 presenting the findings of the recently published Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Fact Sheet. A closed workshop (by invitation only) with key stakeholders on 10 March 2022 will then focus on concrete climate change adaptation and mitigation measures and address the science, policy and management components of climate change action.

“Water temperatures of the Baltic Sea have been increasing during the past 100 years and are projected to rise further during the 21st century,” said Prof. Markus Meier from Baltic Earth, and who coordinated the publication of the fact sheet and is a leading authority on climate change in the Baltic Sea. “The current projections suggest that the Baltic Sea will be largely ice-free during normal winters by the end of the century.”

The conference will also build on the results of a previously held workshop on blue carbon – the carbon sequestered and stored in coastal and marine ecosystems –, as a starting point for identifying mitigation and adaptation measures particularly suited for the Baltic Sea. 

“In addition to blue carbon, at the HSC2022, we will also look at measures that strengthen the Baltic Sea’s overall resilience so that it can better cope with the effects of climate change,” said Dr. Lilian Busse, the current chair of HELCOM and vice-president of UBA.

More info and registration details can be found at https://helcom.fi/hsc2022.

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Contact

Dominik Littfass

Communication Secretary
dominik.littfass@helcom.fi

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Notes

1. About Baltic Earth: Baltic Earth is an international scientific network that aims at achieving an improved Earth system understanding of the Baltic Sea region as the basis for science-based management in the face of climatic, environmental and human impact in the region. Website: https://baltic.earth
2. About HELCOM: The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission – also known as the Helsinki Commission or HELCOM – is an intergovernmental organisation that was established in 1974 to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution. Its members are the nine Baltic Sea coastal countries and the European Union. Website: https://helcom.fi
3. About the German Environment Agency (UBA): Since its founding in 1974, the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt – UBA) has been Germany’s main environmental protection agency. It contributes to ensuring that German citizens have a healthy environment with clean air and water, and that is free of pollutants. In addition to the early detection of environmental risks and threats, UBA provides policy advice, such as to the Ministry of the Environment, on a broad spectrum of issues that include waste avoidance, climate protection, and pesticide approvals. UBA currently provides the HELCOM chairperson, Ms Lilian Busse, Vice-President of UBA. Website: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/
4. About the Baltic Earth and HELCOM Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Fact Sheet: Jointly developed by Baltic Earth and HELCOM, the Baltic Earth and HELCOM Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Fact Sheet contains information about 34 parameters ranging from air and water temperature to marine and coastal ecosystem services, grouped into six different categories: energy cycle, water cycle, carbon and nutrient cycles, sea level and wind, biota and ecosystems, human activities, and services. According to the fact sheet, in the Baltic Sea, water temperature and sea level will rise, and sea ice cover will decrease – in turn affecting ecosystems and marine species, as well as maritime activities such as shipping, fisheries and aquaculture. Empowering decision makers to carry out timely, ambitious and coordinated climate action, the fact sheet is a summary of the regional counterpart – the Baltic Earth Assessment Reports – of the global reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. About 100 experts from the entire Baltic Sea region were involved in the making of the fact sheet, which was developed by the Joint Climate Change expert network (EN CLIME) run by Baltic Earth and HELCOM.
5. About the Blue Carbon Workshop: On 17-18 November 2021, HELCOM and Germany (via the German Environment Agency, UBA) held a joint workshop on blue carbon – the carbon sequestered and stored in coastal and marine ecosystems – to investigate its potential as a climate change mitigation option and to establish a common understanding of the meaning of “blue carbon” in the Baltic Sea region. Attended by leading climate change and marine conservation experts from the Baltic Sea region, it was part of the work under the priorities set by the German chairmanship of HELCOM on climate change, notably on strengthening scientific and policy exchange on the effects of climate change in the Baltic Sea region as well as on potential mitigation and adaptation strategies. Read the workshop report here.

Charting a way forward for a healthy Baltic Sea, HELCOM has adopted the updated Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) during the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting 2021 that was held in Lübeck, Germany, on 20 October 2021.

“This is a good day for the Baltic Sea and its marine environment,” says Rüdiger Strempel, the Executive Secretary of HELCOM, a regional sea organisation to which all Baltic Sea countries and the EU are a party of. “With the updated Baltic Sea Action Plan, we now have a clear-cut roadmap for improving the ecological state of our sea over the next ten years.”

Despite significant progress in the past decades, the Baltic Sea remains heavily polluted and affected by human pressures. The most pressing of these remains eutrophication, the excessive concentration of nutrients in the sea and main cause of harmful algal blooms, leading to the depletion of oxygen in deep waters and upsetting marine biodiversity.

Addressing biodiversity, eutrophication, hazardous substances, and sea-based activities such as shipping and fisheries, the updated HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan contains about 200 concrete actions that were developed to tackle the pressures the Baltic is facing today.

In addition, the plan now also addresses climate change, marine litter, pharmaceuticals, underwater noise, and seabed disturbance. “The update has also allowed us to include emerging and previously insufficiently addressed pressures,” Strempel notes.

The updated BSAP is also closely aligned with international and regional ecological objectives such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), or, for those of our Contracting Parties that are also EU members, the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

All actions of the updated BSAP are to be implemented by 2030 at the latest. “A successful completion of the BSAP is a prerequisite for attaining the overall objective of a healthy Baltic Sea,” emphasizes Strempel.

Initially launched in 2007, the plan was revised when it became clear that the goal of “good environmental status” – a clean, healthy and productive Baltic Sea unaffected by pollution and other human pressures – would not be attained by 2021, as revealed by HELCOM’s latest assessment of the Baltic Sea.

“The BSAP has nonetheless delivered, and it remains one of the most effective tools at our disposal for achieving our environmental objectives,” says Strempel, adding that the original plan has contributed to reducing inputs of nutrients and hazardous substances. It has also led to a better protection of the Baltic Sea’s biodiversity, and to cleaner and safer shipping practices. “That is why the HELCOM Contracting Parties decided to build on and update the plan.”

Initiated in 2017, the update took about four years to complete, involving hundreds of national policy makers, experts and researchers from all Baltic Sea countries and the EU working under the umbrella of HELCOM in its various bodies. Stakeholders from civil society, NGOs, industry and the business sector were also closely involved in the update.

“The BSAP is not just an environmental success, but also a political one, demonstrating once again our capability for regional and cross-sectoral cooperation in the Baltic Sea area,” says Strempel, further stressing that the adoption of the plan was a major achievement also because it took place against the special challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The updated Baltic Sea Action Plan is publicly available on HELCOM’s website.

To provide a better understanding of the effects of climate change in the Baltic Sea, Baltic Earth and HELCOM have recently published the first Baltic Sea Climate Change Fact Sheet. The publication compiles the latest available science in the region on what has now become a global emergency.

“The Baltic Sea Climate Change Fact Sheet provides a summary for policy makers of the latest scientific knowledge on how climate change is currently affecting the Baltic Sea and about what we can expect to happen in the future,” said Prof. Markus Meier from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde and Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, and chair of the Baltic Earth Science Steering Group, who coordinated the publication as leading authority on climate change in the Baltic Sea. 

According to the fact sheet, in the Baltic Sea, water temperature and sea level will rise, and sea ice cover will decrease – in turn affecting ecosystems and marine species, as well as maritime activities such as shipping, fisheries and aquaculture. 

“Water temperatures of the Baltic Sea have been increasing during the past 100 years and are projected to further increase during the 21^st century,” said Prof. Meier, adding that the current projections suggest a largely ice-free Baltic Sea during normal winters by the end of the century.

Jointly developed by Baltic Earth and HELCOM, the Fact Sheet contains information about 34 parameters ranging from air and water temperature to marine and coastal ecosystem services, grouped into six different categories: energy cycle, water cycle, carbon and nutrient cycles, sea level and wind, biota and ecosystems, human activities, and services. 

“With the fact sheets, we want to make sure that decision-makers are informed about the latest scientific knowledge on climate change and its impacts on the marine environment and maritime activities of the Baltic Sea,” said Jannica Haldin who is overseeing climate change related work at HELCOM.

A complete yet concise and easy to read publication, the fact sheet is meant to help policy makers to include climate change considerations in their work and decisions. More broadly, it also seeks to inform the public about the effects of climate change in the Baltic Sea. 

The fact sheet is a summary of the regional counterpart, the Baltic Earth Assessment Reports, of the world wide reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, empowering decision makers to carry out timely, ambitious and coordinated climate action.

About 100 experts from the entire Baltic Sea region were involved in the making of the fact sheet, which was developed by the Joint Climate Change expert network (EN CLIME) run by Baltic Earth and HELCOM. The Baltic Sea Climate Change Fact Sheet is expected to be updated every seven years.