Shadow restoration plan for the Baltic Sea

Human pressures, compounded by climate change, drive the poor status of habitats and species in the Baltic Sea. With the EU Nature Restoration Regulation in place since 2024, and 2021-2030 having been declared the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration, international collaboration on restoration efforts is higher on the agenda than ever before. However, given the failure to reach good environmental status (GES) of EU marine ecosystems, it is widely recognised that further restoration efforts are needed to reach GES in the Baltic Sea and across Europe.

The Helsinki Commission Regional Action Plan for benthic habitat and biotope restoration (HELCOM RAP), together with the toolbox collated as part of the PROTECT BALTIC project, aims to provide HELCOM Contracting Parties with a plan for restoring Baltic Sea habitats, following established obligations under the EU Nature Restoration Regulation. This CCB shadow plan reflects on the measures proposed in the HELCOM Regional Action Plan and the HELCOM Regional Restoration Toolbox, and expands on concrete actions and priorities to form a more comprehensive plan for restoration efforts than the current RAP. Passive restoration measures as well as active measures which take a source-to-sea approach will be included in the CCB shadow restoration plan order to give a more complete overview of needed actions.


Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.