Baltic Sea Management - Nature Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Ecosystem through Spatial Planning

BALANCE aimed towards development of informed marine management tools for the Baltic Sea based on spatial planning and cross-sectoral and transnational co-operation.

BALANCE inter alia aimed to:

• Develop transnational marine spatial planning tools and an agreed template for marine management planning and decision-making;
• Develop the "blue corridor" concept and promote "blue corridors" between protected sites adding spatial development dimensions to the implementation of EC Directives;
• Assess if the Baltic marine Natura 2000 network was ecological coherent and adequately represents & protects a continuum of habitats;
• Develop a communication strategy for stakeholder involvement to ensure that objectives and decisions address local stakeholders needs and that products is used and understood by the end of project;
• Enhance awareness of the marine natural heritage and the benefits of sustainable resource use.

BALANCE in particular:

• Identified and collated relevant and available marine data in the Baltic Sea, Kattegat and Skagerrak area.
• Defined Baltic Sea marine landscapes and developed habitat maps, the latter in 4 pilot areas.
• Assessed the existing Baltic Sea Marine Protected Areas network and developed a "blue corridor" concept.
• Developed Baltic marine zoning plans in 2 pilot areas (pilot area 2 and 3).

Project partners:

• Danish Forest and Nature Agency (DK) – Lead Partner
• DHI – Water and Environment (DK)
• Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (DK)
• National Environmental Research Institute
• Danish Institute for Fisheries Research, Department of Sea Fisheries (DK)
• WWF Denmark (DK)
• Estonian Maritime Institute, University of Tartu (EE)
• Metsähallitus Natural Heritage Service (FI)
• Finnish Environment Institute (FI)
• Geological Survey of Finland (FI)
• WWF Finland (FI)
• WWF Germany (DE)
• Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Latvia (LV)
• Coastal Research and Planning Institute (LT)
• Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SE)
• National Board of Fisheries (SE)
• Geological Survey of Sweden (SE)
• WWF Sweden (SE)
• County Administrative Board of Stockholm (SE)
• Department of Marine Ecology, Gothenburg University (SE)

Sub-contractors:

• Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (DE)
• Finnish Game amd Fisheries Research Institute (DE)
• The Geological Survey of Norway (NO)
• The Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NO)
• Polish Sea Fisheries Institute
• University of California