Regional Action, Global Benefits: Central Elements of HELCOM’s Contribution to UN Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

For nearly 50 years, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) has been the cornerstone of international efforts to protect the unique and vulnerable marine environment of the Baltic Sea. Despite progress over the decades, however, this north-eastern European regional sea has not yet achieved good environmental status. HELCOM’s central policy document and strategic programme of measures and action is the recently updated Baltic Sea Action Plan, which formulates nearly 200 so-called actions to be implemented at the latest by 2030. Closely aligned with the global 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), its successful implementation will not only contribute to achieving the long-standing HELCOM vision of “a healthy Baltic Sea environment with diverse biological components functioning in balance, resulting in a good ecological status and supporting a wide range of sustainable economic activities”, but also mark significant regional progress toward implementing the SDGs.

Views presented here are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Helsinki Commission or the Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention.