Biodiversea

BSAG’s work for biodiversity in connected to a larger whole – and it becomes more effective

Marine areas can only be protected more effectively if all parties using marine resources for recreation and for living jointly pledge to stop biodiversity loss. For this reason, there will be extensive cooperation in the project between a variety of different actors, and the benefits of the protection of marine nature and the challenges arising from it will be impartially communicated.

BSAG is involved in the project to promote the protection of privately owned marine areas in cooperation with landowners. The goal is to make the protection easy and attractive to the landowners. The ambitious goal of the EU’s biodiversity strategy is to protect 30 per cent of Europe’s marine areas by 2030. For the goal to be reached, more privately owned marine areas need to be protected as well. A large part of the Baltic Sea’s underwater biodiversity is located in privately owned shallow coastal waters.

BSAG began the work for increasing the protection of privately owned marine areas in 2019, when the still continuing Living Baltic Sea project began with the funding from Bank of Åland’s Baltic Sea Project. With the Biodiversea project, private protection is linked to a broader marine nature protection whole.   

Biodiversea project is funded by EU’s LIFE programme, coordinated by Metsähallitus and commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment. Other project partners are Finnish Environment Institute, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Provincial Government of Åland, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Åbo Akademi University, Geological Survey of Finland, and Baltic Sea Action Group.