The open consultation "Protecting biodiversity: nature restoration targets under EU biodiversity strategy" covers three separate EU biodiversity policy initiatives and the Baltic Sea Centre's reply concern Development of binding EU nature restoration targets for 2030. Below, you find our additional reply to the consultation questionnaire.

• Protect and restore the marine environment: In the marine environment, many coastal areas are heavily exploited. Human activities have for a long period of time reduced biodiversity and weakened the coastal ecosystems natural functions. In order to stop the loss of species and habitats and secure future access to important ecosystem services, urgent efforts are needed. 
   
• We highlight that many species in the marine environment, fish, birds, mammals and other species show negative population development. Continuing with business as usual, such as fishing down the food chain and catching smaller and smaller fish, and allowing intense shipping and construction in sensitive areas, in many cases Natura2000 areas, which negatively affect threatened marine mammals and seabirds, will threaten the possibilities to achieve the biodiversity targets. 
   
• For marine areas that are still pristine, or less affected by human activities, it is very important to increase protection. If we protect them, we decrease the need for restoration, and restoration of a damaged area or ecosystem is a much costlier solution than providing protection in the first place. Ecosystems might not always be so easily restored, e.g. in the marine environment has replanting of eelgrass sometimes proven difficult, even in its original location. Also, protecting (more or less) pristine areas also protects the value of intact ecosystems and the ecosystem services that they provide. This constitutes the foundation of the Biodiversity strategy and is thus of importance for all EU citizens. 
   
• Marine protected areas (MPA’s) should have a clearly defined management plan, designed to protect the relevant species or habitat and regulations of (potential) harmful human activities that threaten the aim of the MPA. Strict protection will be very important to protect species and habitats, as the present protection in MPA’s in many cases has proven inadequate, thus more areas with strict protection from human activity such as fishing and construction are needed. In this context, it is important to protect coastal areas and avoid building in sensitive environments. 
   
• In planning and location of MPA’s, buffer zones should also be applied when necessary to protect species and/or habitat. For example, when bottom trawling, the sediment plume causes turbidity in the bottom waters that may be elevated for many days and spread for several kilometres. In areas of high trawling intensity, semi-permanent turbid bottom water may form. Turbid water and increased sedimentation are often detrimental to marine organism. Thus, buffer zones may provide an important protection for the MPA’s. Further, protected areas should be interconnected to provide an opportunity for species and individuals to migrate between them, to preserve biodiversity and genetic diversity. 
   
• Apart from protecting species and habitats, there is a need to be able to protect marine areas for the purpose of being reference areas. These areas might have high biodiversity, or not, but be representative and important to monitor changes in the marine environment. Today, it is not possible to designate a marine protected area as a Natura2000 area with the purpose for it to be a reference area. 
   
• In degraded areas, reducing pressures from harmful activities is the first step. Active restoration may also be required for coastal ecosystems to be able to recover. Here it is important to note that it is more effective both from an economic and ecological point of view to protect an ecosystem before it has been damaged, than trying to restore it when the damage has already been done. In this context we stress the following points: 
  
  • Ensure that the restoration methods used are scientifically evaluated and proven effective. 
  • Create an information bank on the effectiveness and conditions of various measures by following up the effect of measures for a sufficiently long period of time. 
  • EU should advocate for an increased coordinated work for restoration between countries within Helcom and Ospar. 

April 4, 2021