White-tailed Sea Eagle (Haliaetus albicilla). Photo: Wild Wonders of Europe Staffan Widstrand WWF
Contact: Ottilia Thoreson
A white-tailed sea eagle tips its wings and soars upward on a gust of wind above one of the thousands of islands in the Swedish archipelago. It glides silently over the world’s youngest and most environmentally stressed seas, the Baltic. Its story is closely linked to the health of the Baltic Sea.
Between the 1950s and the 1970s, the numbers of eagles sharply declined. Their eggs were brittle and the shells broke easily. High levels of hazardous chemicals such as the eggshell-thinning pesticide DDT were to blame. Pesticides like DDT, used in agriculture, and chemicals such as mercury, used in paper mill industries, were entering the Baltic Sea from the land via rivers, waste water and sewage.
In 1974, the Heads of State in seven Baltic countries decided to band together as a region to tackle pollution in the Baltic Sea caused by industrialization and other human activities. Under the new formed Helsinki Commission, they committed “to take measures on conserving habitats and biological diversity and for the sustainable use of marine resources.” DDT and other hazardous chemicals were banned.
In March, there were high hopes for the HELCOM Commission to set an ambitious path forward for updating of the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), with the aim to achieve good environmental status by 2030. The original BSAP was set out to restore the Baltic marine environment by 2021 which has not been met, and proves further need for rigorous action and bolder commitments by the Baltic Sea countries.
The updated plan is due to be approved in June and finally adopted by the Environmental Ministers and the European Commission in October. However, some countries are unwilling to raise the bar on ambition of future actions and are even watering down current actions already agreed in the original BSAP that still need implementing in the coming years. In the meantime, Baltic marine life has to navigate increasingly acidic waters, and dodge trawl nets and abandoned fishing gear, seabed disturbances and extractive activities, anoxic zones, and contaminants. On top of this, Baltic ecosystems are facing new challenges linked to human-induced climate change and extreme weather.
“Fulfilling the 2030 target of changing the current environmental state of the Baltic Sea is one of the hardest things we must collectively achieve. But the consequences of inaction will be even harder to shoulder. Given the interconnected nature of climate change, loss of biodiversity, eutrophication, land, air and water pollution, it is essential that these problems are tackled together.”
Ottilia Thoreson, Director, WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme
We are in the midst of a combined biodiversity and climate crisis. The coming decade will be decisive – either we take action to safeguard biodiversity or we jeopardize our collective future. This year, HELCOM has a unique opportunity to sign a new BSAP that goes beyond “business as usual”. The frameworks and policies that could transform an ailing Baltic into a thriving sea do exist. Brave and sufficient political commitment can deliver that change – they have in the past – only a decade after the ban in the 1970s of hazardous chemicals, white-tailed sea eagles were thriving once more.
This article is part of the WWF Baltic Newsletter – May 2021
