Activities of relevant HELCOM projects or processes

Transcription

1 HELSINKI COMMISSION HELCOM GEAR 2/2012 HELCOM Group for the Implementation of the Ecosystem Approach Second Meeting Gothenburg, Sweden, October 2012 Agenda Item 3 Activities of relevant HELCOM projects or processes Document code: 3/3 Date: Submitted by: Secretariat OUTCOME OF HELCOM MONAS 17/2012 The Seventeenth Meeting of the Monitoring and Assessment Group (HELCOM MONAS 17/2012) was held on September 2012 at Hotel Riverton, Gothenburg, Sweden and arranged by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. The Meeting was attended by participants from all Contracting Parties, except Lithuania, and representatives of HELCOM Observers from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) and HELCOM Consultants from UNECE Convention of Long Range Transboundary Air Pollutants European Monitoring Programme (EMEP) and Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), as well as invited guests from Baltic Nest Institute (BNI) in Denmark and Sweden. The Meeting was chaired by Ms. Anna-Stiina Heiskanen, Finland, Chair of HELCOM MONAS. The meeting took note of the information about the work of BALTEX (the Baltic Sea Experiment) and the on-going updating of the Second BALTEX Assessment of Climate Change for the Baltic Sea basin (BACC II), as well as cooperation between the BACCII process and the Secretariat and that a HELCOM thematic assessment on climate change will be produced for the 2013 HELCOM Ministerial Meeting based on the BACCII book material. The meeting considered the proposal to organise a two-day workshop in early 2013 to review the draft climate change assessment report and to consider the consequences of the findings in the report. The meeting agreed with the arranging of such a workshop, emphasizing the need to use such a workshop to discuss also the impacts of climate change on HELCOM eutrophication target setting and nutrient reduction scheme as well as other actions to protect the marine environment. The meeting agreed that the workshop should elaborate input on the consequences of climate change on HELCOM s protection measures that could be forwarded to the HELCOM 2013 Ministerial Meeting together with the thematic assessment on climate change. The meeting invited the Secretariat, with the help of Denmark and Germany, to draft an agenda for the workshop. The meeting agreed that such a workshop should be held on 5-6 February 2013 and welcomed the preliminary offer of Germany to host the workshop. The meeting took note that there is an EU level expert group tackling the impacts of climate change on implementation of WFD river basin management plans and suggested that experts involved in that work should be invited to participate in the HELCOM workshop. Separate documents have been submitted related to: the final report of the HELCOM TARGREV project (document 3/1), outcome of HELCOM CORE EUTRO 6/2012 (document 3/2), setting of eutrophication targets and development of the concise eutrophication assessment for the HELCOM 2013 Ministerial Meeting (document 3/4), the CORESET project (documents 3/5 and 3/6). Note by Secretariat: FOR REASONS OF ECONOMY, THE DELEGATES ARE KINDLY REQUESTED TO BRING THEIR OWN COPIES OF THE DOCUMENTS TO THE MEETING Page 1 of 2

2 HELCOM GEAR 2/2012, Document 3/3 In addition, updates related to activities under HELCOM LOAD expert group and HELCOM MORE project will be presented during the meeting by Mr. Lars Svendsen, Chairman of HELCOM LOAD and Mr. Manuel Frias Vega, Project Coordinator of HELCOM MORE, respectively. The outcome of the HELCOM MONAS 17/2012 meeting is in the attachment. The Meeting is invited to take note of the outcome, particularly the Roadmap towards new country-wise allocation reduction targets (CART) and principles for the allocation scheme MONAS (Annex 3) and Work Programme (as contained in Annex 5 of the minutes of the meeting), consider the possible input by HELCOM GEAR to the workshop related to climate change to be organised on 5-6 February 2013 to elaborate input on the consequences of climate change on HELCOM s protection measures that could be forwarded to the HELCOM 2013 Ministerial Meeting together with the thematic assessment on climate change. Page 2 of 2

3 HELSINKI COMMISSION HELCOM MONAS 17/2012 HELCOM Monitoring and Assessment Group 17 th Meeting Gothenburg, Sweden, September 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS MINUTES OF THE 17TH MEETING OF HELCOM MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT GROUP (HELCOM MONAS)... 2 Introduction... 2 Agenda Item 1 Adoption of the Agenda... 2 Agenda Item 2 Information by the Secretariat and an overview of the work of HELCOM MONAS... 2 Agenda Item 3 Information by the Contracting Parties and Observer Organisations... 3 Agenda Item 4 Eutrophication indicators, targets for open sea areas and assessment... 5 Agenda Item 5 Indicator Fact Sheets, other core indicators, and assessments... 8 Agenda Item 6 Agenda Item 7 Monitoring of pollution loads and review of the BSAP nutrient reduction scheme...12 Reports on the work of other projects or expert groups under HELCOM MONAS...17 Agenda Item 8 Environmental monitoring, quality assurance and data...18 Agenda Item 9 Matters related to HELCOM Recommendations...19 Agenda Item 10 Preparations for Autumn 2013 HELCOM Ministerial Meeting...20 Agenda Item 11 Cooperation with international organisations...21 Agenda Item 12 Future work of HELCOM MONAS...21 Agenda Item 13 Any other business...21 Agenda Item 14 Closing of the Meeting...22 Annex 1 List of Participants...23 Annex 2 Outcome of the drafting group on eutrophication assessment...26 Annex 3 Roadmap towards new country-wise allocation reduction targets (CART) and principles for the allocation scheme...27 Annex 4 List of national contact persons for HELCOM COMBINE monitoring stations and data submitted to ICES...31 Annex 5 HELCOM MONAS Work programme Annex 6 Addresses of HELCOM MONAS Contacts...44 Annex 7 List of Documents...51 Annex 8 List of Presentations...54 Page 1 of 54

4 MINUTES OF THE 17TH MEETING OF HELCOM MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT GROUP (HELCOM MONAS) INTRODUCTION 0.1 In accordance with the decisions of HELCOM MONAS 15/2011, (Minutes, paragraph 12.2) and HELCOM Heads of Delegation (Minutes, HELCOM HOD 36/2011, LD 12, paragraph 3.1) the Seventeenth Meeting of the Monitoring and Assessment Group (HELCOM MONAS 17/2012) was held on September 2012 at Hotel Riverton, Gothenburg, Sweden and arranged by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. 0.2 The Meeting was attended by participants from all Contracting Parties, except Lithuania, and representatives of HELCOM Observers from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) and HELCOM Consultants from UNECE Convention of Long Range Transboundary Air Pollutants European Monitoring Programme (EMEP) and Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), as well as invited guests from Baltic Nest Institute (BNI) in Denmark and Sweden. The List of Participants is included in Annex The Meeting was welcomed by Ms. Ylva Engwall of the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. 0.4 The Meeting was chaired by Ms. Anna-Stiina Heiskanen, Finland, Chair of HELCOM MONAS and Mr. Lars M. Svendsen, Denmark, Vice-Chair of HELCOM MONAS and Chair of HELCOM LOAD. Ms. Maria Laamanen, HELCOM Professional Secretary and Ms. Minna Pyhälä, HELCOM Assisting Professional Secretary, acted as secretaries of the Meeting. Agenda Item 1 Adoption of the Agenda Documents: 1/1, 1/2 1.1 The Meeting adopted the Agenda as contained in documents 1/1 and 1/2. Agenda Item 2 Information by the Secretariat and an overview of the work of HELCOM MONAS Documents: 2/1, 2/2, 2/3, 2/4 2.1 The Meeting took note of document 2/1 which summarizes the information of relevance for HELCOM MONAS from the outcomes of the meetings of HELCOM AGRI/ENV 3/2012, HELCOM LAND 17/2012, HELCOM MUNI 4/2012, HELCOM HABITAT 14/2012 and HELCOM HOD 37/2012). The Meeting agreed to make use of the information as necessary when discussing the relevant issues during the Meeting. 2.2 The Meeting took note of the outcome of the first meeting of the HELCOM Group for the Implementation of the Ecosystem Approach (HELCOM GEAR 1/2012), which was held in Bonn, Germany, from 31 May to 1 June 2012 (document 2/2), and agreed to make use of it when planning the future Work Programme of HELCOM MONAS. Page 2 of 54

5 2.3 The Meeting took note of the follow-up table on implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) Index contained in document 2/4, noting that it outlines the main actions in the BSAP, the actors responsible for implementing the actions, lead Contracting Parties, national updates by Estonia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and Russia, relevant deadlines and remarks. 2.4 The Meeting considered the need for any updates related to the joint activities under HELCOM MONAS and suggested that reference to the Joint Advisory Board of the CORESET and TARGREV projects (JAB), as predecessor of HELCOM GEAR, should be included on page 8. The Meeting invited Contracting Parties to provide any updated information on national implementation activities of the BSAP to the Secretariat by 19 October 2012 so that an updated version of the table can be submitted to the meeting of HELCOM HOD 38/2012 which will take place on 9 November The Meeting took note of document 2/3 which provides an overview of the implementation of the HELCOM MONAS Work Programme by outlining the main tasks that stem from the HELCOM Monitoring and Assessment Strategy, HELCOM Recommendations under HELCOM MONAS and those actions of the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) and the 2010 HELCOM Moscow Ministerial Meeting Declaration which are addressed to HELCOM MONAS. The Meeting considered the colour coding of the rows useful and agreed to make use of the overview while considering other related issues during the Meeting, including the updating of the HELCOM MONAS Work Programme under Agenda Item 12 (cf. paragraphs ). Agenda Item 3 Information by the Contracting Parties and Observer Organisations Documents: 3/1, 3/2 3.1 The Meeting took note of the information by the EC on the status of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Common Implementation Strategy and on the work carried out in the Working Groups GES (Good Environmental Status), ESA (Economic and Social Assessment) and DIKE (Data, Information and Knowledge Exchange) in 2012 as contained in document 3/ The Meeting took note of information by the Contracting Parties related to implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) as well as the status of national monitoring activities. 3.3 Denmark informed that papers on the initial assessment, the determination of good environmental status and the environmental targets have been in public consultation until mid-august and that the Ministry of Environment is presently reviewing the responses from the public hearing and it is expected that the final "initial assessment" will be ready for reporting to the EU's deadline for "notification" by 15 October The Ministry of Environment has in August sent a shortened English version of the initial assessment for the information of HELCOM. 3.4 As concerns implementation of the WFD, Denmark informed that the implementation of measures according to the first round of River Basin Management Plans is on-going, including measures to reduce nitrogen loads to coastal waters by 9,000 tonnes, by re-establishing wetlands, setting additional requirements for farmers use of catch crops, establishing10 meters buffer strips along most watercourses etc. Both municipalities and the state are responsible for the implementation of measures. Especially the implementation of buffer strips involving more than 50,000 hectares land has met considerable resistance from farmers claiming that the measure will not have the anticipated effect on the waters. The planning for the second round of River Basin Management Planning has started this autumn with various events planned to receive input from experts and stakeholders from various sectors. Page 3 of 54

6 3.5 Additionally, Denmark informed that the Danish Government has appointed an independent commission (Natur og Landbrugskommissionen) to draw up proposals for solving agricultural structural, economic and environmental challenges, including how agriculture can contribute to climate action and actions related to protection of the environment and nature. One of the tasks of the commission is to draw up proposals of additional actions/measures for reducing nitrogen loads by an additional 10,000 tonnes. 3.6 Estonia informed of their status of the implementation of the MSFD and that the Initial Assessment has been finalized, including the socio-economic analysis and the report on indicators and targets. Currently the public consultation is taking place. In the initial assessment, status classification is carried out based on indicators and targets, using all Estonian waters as one assessment unit, with indicator-dependant aggregation. Estonia will report operational and indicators to be developed. Reporting is expected to happen according to the schedule defined by the Directive. Establishing of the monitoring program as well as program of measures is underway. 3.7 Finland informed that a public hearing on the MSFD initial assessment, GES, targets and indicators was finished in spring These will be soon presented for acceptance to the council of state. The draft state indicators in the 1 st phase of the Finnish Marine Strategy (document 3/1) will be presented to the council of state. They are divided into operational indicators and indicators that will be operational in Reporting for EU is now taking place and will be ready before 15 th October Germany informed that the MSFD reports (initial assessment, GES and environmental targets) have been submitted by the 16th of July to the European Commission. The filling of the digital reporting sheets is going on and is foreseen to be finalized by mid-october. The first steps for the transformation of the national monitoring programme to the needs of the MSFD have been started by compiling a strategic concept paper and involvement of the different monitoring working groups. This work is expected to benefit from HELCOM products, e.g. the CORESET list of indicators. 3.9 Latvia informed that they have completed Initial assessment for MSFD and submitted that to the Ministry of Environment and Regional Development, since according to national legislation the Initial assessment should be approved by minister. Latvia is also in a process of filling in electronic reporting forms Poland informed that regarding the implementation of MSFD, the initial assessment is finalized and is waiting for completed transposition legislation procedure. Poland has started monitoring revision work. Few new hazardous substances like PAHs, TBT, HBCD or PBDE and new sampling sites have been already implemented in monitoring program starting with Since 2013 Poland is going to run a 4-year program of annual fish monitoring in the Polish Economic Zone The Meeting took note of the presentation by Ms. Elzbieta Lysiak-Pastuszak, Poland, on the challenges and merits of MSFD implementation in the Polish sector of the Baltic Sea (presentation 1) Russia informed that they have submitted their monitoring data of 2011 from the Eastern part of the Gulf of Finland to ICES, and that these have been successfully incorporated into the database. Roshydromet provided the financial support for monitoring expeditions in 2012 in the Curonian and Vistula Lagoons, as well as in the coastal waters of Southern-Eastern Baltic. The preliminary programme includes three times water sampling at 6, 5 and 9 stations correspondingly to lagoons and sea with standard hydrochemical parameters, nutrients and pollutants petroleum hydrocarbons, detergents, phenols, trace metals and chlorinated pesticides. It is planned to continue investigations in 2013 with additional sampling of bottom sediments for TPHs, TM and pesticides The Meeting took note that Secchi depth is not a parameter monitored by Russia and invited Russia to consider including Secchi depth in its monitoring programme to comply to the HELCOM COMBINE manual and to provide data for the HELCOM indicator on Secchi depth. Page 4 of 54

7 3.14 Sweden informed that the Swedish reports referring to MSFD article 8, 9 and 10 has been on public consultation and were adopted by 15 July Sweden has used the majority of HELCOM indicators in addition to a number of indicators that have been used in the Swedish monitoring and assessment work since previously. Several of the adopted MSFD criteria are currently lacking indicators and GES boundaries and work for developing these will be on-going. During the process of preparing the Initial Assessment, Sweden has made some adjustments to the extent of some WFD water bodies, particularly at the boundary between the Greater North Sea and Baltic Sea. GES values for nutrients and chlorophyll have been reviewed and aligned with those agreed in EUTRO-PRO. The reports are available in Swedish at: Regarding monitoring, SMHI has completed 8 monitoring cruises in the Kattegat, Sound and Baltic Proper during 2012, using the Swedish Coastguard vessel KBV001 Poseidon. Further, SMHI is working on 150 year biogeochemical modelling runs to describe pre, eutrophication and post eutrophication conditions in the Baltic. These runs are presently being validated against observations, such as the hypoxia maps included in the HELCOM IFS. Within EU projects SeaDataNet 2 and MyOcean SMHI is preparing climatologies to describe conditions (physics, chemistry) in the Baltic Sea using archived data (SeaDataNet) and models (MyOcean) 3.16 The Meeting considered that it would be very useful if Contracting Parties could share information on the indicators and GES targets that different countries have reported under the MSFD and invited the Contracting Parties to submit such information to the Secretariat (maria.laamanen@helcom.fi) so that the information can be forwarded to the meeting of HELCOM GEAR 2/2012 which will be held on October ICES informed about the work of the Council Steering Group on the MSFD. In addition to the report of the group, a document on ICES science and advisory services in relation to the MSFD was prepared and presented to the EU Marine Directors meeting in May ICES also informed of a project idea on integrating fisheries surveys and environmental monitoring into an integrated ecosystem monitoring programme. During the ICES annual science conference in Bergen, a small workshop/meeting was convened which will bring the idea forward. The Meeting took note that ICES wants to cooperate with the Regional Seas Commissions on such a project and welcomed the information that the HELCOM Secretariat is being kept informed, has received the documents and intends to take part in the project application. Agenda Item 4 Eutrophication indicators, targets for open sea areas and assessment Documents: 4/1, 4/2, 4/3 Revised eutrophication targets for open sea areas 4.1 The Meeting took note of the outcome of First expert workshop on HELCOM eutrophication status targets (HELCOM TARGETS 1/2012) as contained in document 4/1 as well as the outcome of the Sixth Intersessional Workshop of HELCOM MONAS on the Development of HELCOM Core Eutrophication Indicators (HELCOM CORE EUTRO 6/2012) as contained in document 4/ The Meeting welcomed the revised final report of TARGREV project presented by the Project s Scientific Coordinator, Mr. Jacob Carstensen (presentation 2, document 4/3), noting that the eutrophication targets have been recalculated using new as well as additional data as requested by HELCOM GEAR 1/2012 and HOD 37/2012 and that also redistributed targets for Secchi depth, nutrients and chlorophyll a have been calculated using the HELCOM HOLAS sub-basin division and included in Annex F of the report. Page 5 of 54

8 4.3 The Meeting took note of the view by the Scientific Coordinator that the results are based on the best available data which are statistically unbiased over space and time and that the methodology used seems to be robust and reliable; this being well illustrated also by the limited change in targets despite a 30% increase in data used. 4.4 The Meeting welcomed the information that adding new data have improved the precision of some estimates and extended some of the time series up to year The Meeting thanked the TARGREV project for all the good work it has carried out for HELCOM and recommended the further revised report for submission to HELCOM GEAR 2/2012 for review from the managerial point of view with the aim that it will be finally approved for printing by HELCOM HOD 39/2012 in December. 4.6 The Meeting recalled that the exact wording of the possible disclaimer to be added to the report will be further discussed by HELCOM GEAR 2/2012 and agreed upon by HELCOM HOD 38/ The Meeting took note of the view of Germany that although the TARGREV project has now finished, there are some aspects that merit future research in order to strengthen confidence in the targets. In particular, this includes: 1) the investigation of the ecological relevance of the oxygen targets e.g. by scrutinising data on macrozoobenthos; 2) trying to better investigate linkages between the TARGREV targets by investigating causal relationships, with such investigations resulting in particular in strengthening confidence in targets for nutrients and chlorophyll; 3) critically scrutinising targets for the Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Riga that currently appear to be less trustworthy compared to the targets for the other basins. 4.8 The Meeting welcomed the information that the TARGREV report includes the option to select targets that take into account possible effects of climate change (including increased water temperature and variation in CDOM) especially on oxygen concentrations and Secchi depth (cf. paragraph of the outcome of HELCOM TARGETS 1/2012). 4.9 The Meeting discussed the use of the proposed TARGREV eutrophication status targets for the review of the Baltic Sea Action Plan as well as for HELCOM eutrophication assessments in the open basins. The Meeting emphasized the importance to achieve an agreement on common eutrophication targets for open sea areas of the Baltic Sea and stressed that the open sea eutrophication targets to be agreed by HELCOM should be coherent and applicable for both eutrophication assessment and BSAP review purposes The Meeting acknowledged that the TARGREV targets are estimations based on scientific results. The Meeting agreed that eutrophication targets for different open sea basins should be scrutinized, tested and, if necessary, amended before they can be recommended by MONAS from the scientific-technical point of view for adoption by HELCOM HOD The Meeting took note that in order to proceed with the work to review the BSAP nutrient reduction scheme it is important to agree on the HELCOM eutrophication targets as soon as possible. The Meeting agreed on the use of the TARGREV targets also for the initial iterations by BNI in the calculation of maximum allowable nutrient inputs and country-wise nutrient reduction targets The Meeting stressed the importance of testing the EUTRO-PRO targets against the TARGREV targets, and agreed that this would be continued during the HELCOM CORE EUTRO 7/2012 workshop The Meeting considered the need to assess whether the TARGREV targets are in line with the WFD environmental targets and acknowledged that WFD targets on good ecological status are defined on the basis of an EU "intercalibration exercise" making these general environmental objectives operational in a harmonized way throughout the EU. The present intercalibrated targets for coastal waters in EU, including the Baltic Sea, are decided by EU Commission (by decision of 30. October 2008). Page 6 of 54

9 4.14 The Meeting noted that a further developed HEAT 3.0 assessment tool, which enables the use of different types of targets for assessments, will be presented by Mr. Jesper Andersen, Denmark at the meeting of CORE EUTRO 7/2012. The Meeting encouraged Contracting Parties to carry out testing of the HEAT 3.0 tool using the TARGREV and EUTRO-PRO targets prior to the next CORE EUTRO 7/2012 workshop, with the view that the results will be presented and discussed during the workshop. The Meeting requested Mr. Andersen to provide the HEAT 3.0 tool to Contracting Parties in good time before the workshop so that they have sufficient time to carry out the testing. The Meeting emphasized that this testing will also provide an opportunity for the Contracting Parties to test and comment the preliminary tool The Meeting took note of the outcome of the Drafting Group on eutrophication targets which elaborated further ideas of how Contracting Parties should test the eutrophication targets and HEAT 3.0 assessment tool (Annex 2) Following the outcome of the Drafting Group, the Meeting stressed that scrutinising the targets is a scientific-technical exercise and any significant amendments to the targets proposed by TARGREV should be supported with scientific arguments. The Meeting also emphasized that the resulting assessment status (good or not good) should not be a driving force to judge whether the TARGREV targets are appropriate The Meeting agreed on the necessity to finalise the testing of the targets at the CORE EUTRO 7/2012 workshop for endorsement by HOD 39/2012 on 3-4 December The Meeting agreed that to prepare for the upcoming workshop of HELCOM CORE EUTRO 7/2012, the following activities should be carried out: The Secretariat should prepare a map to visualize the different chlorophyll-a targets In order to scrutinise any discrepancies between the TARGREV targets for chlorophyll-a for the open waters and the intercalibrated WFD targets for the coastal waters; Contracting Parties are requested to prepare individually comparisons of TARGREV/EUTRO PRO/national targets for the open waters (>1 nautical mile from the baseline) and will identify discrepancies and possible scientific explanations for those; with the aim to discuss at the workshop whether expert judgement for further revising the TARGREV targets is scientifically required. This exercise could also make use of analysing targets along coast-to-coast transects. Contracting Parties are encouraged to submit written information on the testing results prior to the CORE EUTRO 7/2012 workshop by 7 November 2012; BNI is invited to support the target testing process by providing hindcasting of modelling results and to take part in the HELCOM CORE EUTRO 7/2012. Mr. Jesper Andersen will be asked to provide a first full version of a HEAT 3.0 tool well in advance of the HELOCM CORE EUTRO 7/2012 workshop to give Contracting Parties the opportunity to scrutinize the tool and report back to the HELCOM CORE EUTRO 7/2012 workshop The Meeting discussed the operationalization of the updating of the core eutrophication indicators and welcomed the willingness of Mr. Carstensen to share the SAS programmes (codes/scripts) used to calculate the indicators The Meeting acknowledged that TARGREV have carried out the modelling based on distributed databases of IOW, SYKE, SMHI, AU and the BNI BED Database. The Meeting also recalled the HELCOM CORE EUTRO 5/2012 had agreed that the eutrophication indicators should be operationalized making use of the ICES database The Meeting agreed that there is a need to discuss the roles, advantages and disadvantages of having multiple databases in the Baltic Sea region. The Meeting recalled that ICES is the official HELCOM marine database and stressed that if other databases are made use of for HELCOM projects, then it should be ensured that the ICES dataset is included. Page 7 of 54

10 Updating of the eutrophication assessment 4.22 The Meeting took note of the intention of Mr. Andersen et al. to develop a eutrophication assessment with the TARGREV dataset and HEAT 3.0 tool for the 13 Baltic Sea open sea basins for the period starting in the beginning of the 20th century based on the TARGREV data and noted the offer he made during HELCOM CORE EUTRO 6/2012 workshop (document 4/2) to develop it, together with the Contracting Parties, into a HELCOM assessment of eutrophication that could be presented to the HELCOM 2013 Ministerial Meeting and as an annually updated report The Meeting recalled the agreement by HELCOM MONAS 16/2012 to deliver an updated eutrophication assessment for the 2013 HELCOM Ministerial Meeting and the endorsement of that agreement by HELCOM HOD 37/2012. The Meeting welcomed the offer of Mr. Andersen to elaborate an updated eutrophication assessment in collaboration with the Contracting Parties, in a planned HELCOM project The Meeting recalled that the challenges in developing sound core eutrophication indicators under the EUTRO-PRO and CORE EUTRO process. The Meeting hence was of the opinion that a project would help this task The Meeting stressed that this initiative should also result in a set of open sea core eutrophication indicator reports that can be annually updated based on the TARGREV project outcome and HELCOM eutrophication targets to be agreed upon (cf. paragraphs 4.9 to 4.18) The Meeting stressed that the eutrophication assessment cannot be accomplished by a scientific project alone since it requires ownership by the Contracting Parties. The Meeting supported the elaboration of a project proposal to enable the production of the updated assessment and invited the Secretariat to submit a draft project proposal to Contracting Parties for commenting by 5 October The Meeting mandated the workshop of HELCOM CORE EUTRO 7/2012 to further discuss and elaborate the project proposal with the intention to submit the proposal to HELCOM HOD 39/2012 for adoption The Meeting was of the opinion that Contracting Parties should be very much involved in the updating of the eutrophication assessment, e.g. in order to include also coastal areas into the assessment in a harmonized way, but stressed that this should be carried out via correspondence as much as possible, due to lack of resources to participate in numerous workshops The Meeting recalled that an updated eutrophication assessment will focus on open sea areas (> 1Nm) and agreed that assessment of coastal waters should be integrated into the report with the input of the Contracting Parties. The Meeting invited HELCOM CORE EUTRO 7/2012 to further consider how this integration should be carried out The Meeting was of the opinion that there is a need to develop a technical background report on the eutrophication assessment by the proposed project. Agenda Item 5 Indicator Fact Sheets, other core indicators, and assessments Documents: 5/1, 5/1/Add.1, 5/2, 5/3, 5/4, 5/4/Rev.1, 5/5, 5/6, 5/7 Agenda Item 5.1 Indicator Fact Sheets 5.1 The Meeting took note of the status of 2012 Indicator Fact Sheets (IFS) as contained in documents 5/4 and 5/4/Rev.1. The Meeting further took note of the following information from the Meeting: The IFS on trace metals in sea water and habitat layer extension and the occurrence of dominant calanoid copepods in the Baltic Sea will be discontinued; The IFS on sedimentation of organic matter might be updated in the future; Page 8 of 54

11 The IFS on contaminants in herring is presently being updated by ICES; The IFS on ecosystem regime shifts will be updated with the new report of the ICES/HELCOM Working Group for Integrated Assessment of the Baltic Sea. 5.2 The Meeting considered the IFS on waterborne inputs of heavy metal inputs to the Baltic Sea, noting that the data is limited. The Meeting agreed that the continuation of this indicator should be considered after the revision of the Pollution Load Compilation (PLC) guidelines, after which it will be clearer which parameters will be monitored by the Contracting Parties. 5.3 The Meeting endorsed the publication of the updated Indicator Fact Sheets on the HELCOM website. 5.4 The Meeting welcomed the three proposed new indicator fact sheets on distribution and abundance of selected invasive species, the total number of non-indigenous species in the Baltic Sea as well as the impacts of NIS on the Baltic native species, habitats and ecosystem, as presented by Ms. Maiju Lehtiniemi, Finland (presentation 3, document 5/3). The Meeting noted that these have been developed by the alien species expert team of the CORESET project. 5.5 The Meeting took note that Denmark questions whether the biopollution index is being used in an optimal way, e.g. the division of different impacts could be improved. The Meeting invited Contracting Parties to submit their more detailed comments to Mr. Samuli Korpinen by 19 October The Meeting approved the publication of the new indicator fact sheets on invasive species on the HELCOM website after the comments of the Contracting Parties have been incorporated. The Meeting recommended the inclusion of pictures of the species, as well as information about the impacts of the species on the environment. Agenda Item 5.2 Core indicators of hazardous substance and biodiversity 5.7 The Meeting considered the first set of proposals for HELCOM core indicators from the scientific-technical point of view as presented by the HELCOM CORESET Project Manager Mr. Samuli Korpinen (presentation 4, documents 5/1 and 5/1/Add1), having in mind that they will also be considered by HELCOM GEAR from a coordination and managerial perspective. 5.8 The Meeting valued the work of the CORESET project, noting that they cover all the Ecological objectives of the Baltic Sea Action Plan which fall under the CORESET project description, all the respective descriptors of the MSFD, and the associated MSFD criteria, and pointed out that the CORESET project has assisted Contracting Parties that are also EU member states in their work in implementing the MSFD. 5.9 The Meeting took note of the next steps in the work of the CORESET project, which includes data compilation and development or further development of GES boundaries of some of the core indicators, and the need to ensure coherence in the format and maps and figures used in the indicator reports The Meeting acknowledged that the indicators vary in their degree of readiness and level of regional coverage, recognized that further work will be required to continue the development of the core indicators and invited the CORESET expert teams and the expert groups to continue the work The Meeting acknowledged the magnitude of the work, appreciated the involvement of the existing HELCOM expert groups such as HELCOM SEAL, FISH-PRO and ZEN QAI projects in this work and felt that it would be useful if the bird and benthos experts also worked via more formal HELCOM expert groups rather than the present informal networks and teams, and that this becomes even more important in the future indicator operationalization and maintenance phase. Page 9 of 54

12 5.12 The Meeting took note of the comments provided by Germany concerning the first final set of core indicators presented in document 5/7. The Meeting noted e.g. that there is not full agreement by German experts about the suitability of some biomarkers indicators due to their extreme sensitivity to a variety of pressures, making it difficult to associate them to anthropogenic impacts specifically The Meeting took note of the study reservation by Sweden on approval of the indicator on marine mammals population status, referring to the still on-going discussions by the HELCOM SEAL expert group The Meeting agreed that the list of core hazardous substances indicators should be reviewed according to the outcome of 2008/105/EC directive revision process The Meeting was of the opinion that it is important to continue the development of the proposed core set of indicators without further delay in order to give impetus to the revision of monitoring programmes which need to be completed before 2014 according to the deadline of MSFD implementation and the Moscow 2010 Ministerial Declaration The Meeting also pointed out that there may be certain specific hazardous substances (e.g. dioxins) which are of more concern in some sea areas than other and that such region-specificity should be noted in the indicators The Meeting recalled that although one of the objectives of the CORESET project is to develop a set of indicators that is monitored at a Baltic-wide level not all proposed indicators are equally applicable in all the sub-regions of the Baltic. The Meeting recalled that the common principles for core indicators adopted by HELCOM HOD 35/2011 reflect that biodiversity indicators may need to be flexible in order to take account of different distributions of species and biotopes in the Baltic Sea The Meeting invited the expert groups to further assess coherence of the indicators at a sub-regional level and categorize the relevance and possibility of monitoring of the indicators in the different sub-regions of the Baltic Sea, suggesting, for example, threshold levels which trigger the need to initiate monitoring of a hazardous substance. The Meeting requested the expert groups to propose such exceptions to Baltic wide applicability of the indicator reports and include this information to the indicator reports The Meeting congratulated the CORESET project for the impressive work carried out and recognized that it is a great achievement also at a European level. The Meeting approved the first final set of HELCOM core indicators for further development and finalisation by the relevant experts. The Meeting invited Contracting Parties to provide possible additional scientific-technical comments to the Project Manager (Samuli.korpinen@helcom.fi) by 19 October The Meeting discussed how to finalize the Core Indicator Reports and welcomed the plan to have the CORESET hazardous substances expert workshop in December 2012 and biodiversity expert workshop in January or February 2013 to further develop the core indicators. The Meeting invited the project to submit a complete set of core indicators to HELCOM MONAS 18/2013 but noted that even then not all indicators will be fully finalized since monitoring and/or data is not currently available for all proposed core indicators The Meeting took note that the core indicators will be included in a web-based follow-up system of the BSAP implementation which will be developed for the 2013 Ministerial Meeting The Meeting took note that the CORESET project will end in June 2013, considered that it would be useful if the CORESET Project Manager could continue supporting the work of the Contracting Parties experts until the Ministerial Meeting in October 2013 and invited the Secretariat to explore opportunities for that The Meeting discussed how to further develop and operationalize the regular updating of the core indicators after the CORESET project and reiterated the view of HELCOM MONAS 15/2011 that the relevant HELCOM expert groups, e.g. HELCOM SEAL, Page 10 of 54

13 HELCOM ZEN, HELCOM PEG, HELCOM FISH-PRO, HELCOM MORS etc. should be involved The Meeting took note that the OSPAR expert group MIME carries out the assessment of hazardous substances and utilises data analyses done by ICES, based on data submitted by Contracting Parties to ICES database. The Meeting considered that options for HELCOM core set indicators operationalization include the involvement of ICES and/or Contracting Parties taking lead roles in updating indicators The Meeting took note that the HELCOM CORESET hazardous substances expert group is rather well established and has contributed to the HELCOM indicator development and assessment processes. Taking into account the operationalization and monitoring needs of the core indicators, the Meeting recommended making the group a more permanent expert group and invited the group to submit a proposal for Terms of Reference for such a group to HELCOM MONAS 18/ The Meeting agreed that there is a need to further consider the sharing of tasks of updating the indicators and invited the Secretariat to make a proposal to the meeting of HELCOM MONAS 18/ The Meeting took note of the state of the art of the on-going work by the Technical Subgroups on Marine Litter and Noise and discussed how to make use of the information for the core set of indicators (document 5/6) The Meeting took note of the information on the following national activities and plans as regards marine litter and underwater noise: Germany informed that there will be an international high-level conference on marine litter on April 2013 in Berlin with an aim to draw up regional action plans and invited HELCOM to participate in this event and prepare, in coordination, for the action plan already before the workshop. For underwater noise, there is a project mapping underwater noise in the German EEZ and evaluating the impacts on harbour porpoise. Finland informed of activities in the GES-REG project related to investigations of the distribution and intake of microlitter. Sweden informed of an LIFE+ project BIAS concerning noise, involving the Swedish defence agency and that the SWAM supports local projects on litter in Gotland and the Swedish west coast The Meeting also took note that OSPAR is carrying out some work on beach litter at present The Meeting considered whether intersessional workshops should be arranged to scrutinize the outcomes of the two Technical Subgroups, possible national work and initiate a regional activity related to the Baltic marine litter and underwater noise. The Meeting pointed out that these issues relate closely to shipping and was of the opinion that it would be appropriate that the HELCOM MARITIME group also addressed these topics The Meeting pointed out that the experts specialised on these topics are few in the Baltic Sea and many of them are already involved in on-going activities such as the EC JRC Technical Subgroup Marine Litter. The Meeting agreed that the outcomes of existing activities should be awaited, and possibly followed by supplementary work The Meeting considered and discussed the first Preliminary draft of the Final Report of the HELCOM CORESET project (document 5/5). The Meeting was of the opinion that all essential components are included in the report. The Meeting proposed that definitions of some of the terms should be included along with information about how the core indicators reflect the MSFD descriptors. In addition, the Meeting pointed out that ecosystem approach should be better reflected, e.g. the table of contents should reflect the ecosystem which is being assessed by the core indicators and not so much the pressures behind the indicators. Page 11 of 54

14 5.33 The Meeting discussed the extent of including eutrophication indicators into the report and agreed that the report should present a summary of the eutrophication core indicators based on the outcome of the upcoming intersessional work of the HELCOM CORE EUTRO, e.g. the possible project for eutrophication assessment and core eutrophication indicators (cf. paragraph 4.26) The Meeting invited Contracting Parties to provide further comments to the outline of the final report to the Project Manager (samuli.korpinen@helcom.fi) by 19 October 2012 and asked that a first draft of the final report will be presented to HELCOM MONAS 18/ The Meeting took note of the comparison of indicator fact sheets and core indicators as presented in document 5/2. The Meeting emphasized the importance of the Indicator Fact Sheets for testing and further development of some of them into core indicators The Meeting noted that many of the current Indicator Fact Sheets are not applicable as core indicators due to their descriptive nature and lack of specific targets. The Meeting however expressed its appreciation to the dedicated institutes supporting the IFSs and pointed out that many of them supplement the core indicators and assist in the implementation of the BSAP/MSFD The Meeting was of the opinion that the Fact Sheets are not actually indicators and agreed that they should be renamed as Baltic Sea Environment Fact Sheets (BSEFSs) to differentiate them from Core Indicators The Meeting recalled the plans to develop a web-based follow-up system of the BSAP and that this should also clarify the role of the BSEFSs The Meeting acknowledged that several Core Indicators are still under development and felt that it is premature to decide which BSEFSs will be converted or combined to Core Indicators. The Meeting noted that an updated list of indicators will be presented to HELCOM MONAS 18/ The Meeting considered how to merge Indicator Fact Sheets from several authors or author groups covering the same subject to a single Core Indicator Report and welcomed the willingness of the CORESET Project Manager to contact the authors and invite them to consider coordinating their work The Meeting noted that the present set of BSEFSs and proposed Core Indicators already quite well support the implementation of the BSAP but acknowledged that the geographic scope of some of these should be widened to even better support the implementation of BSAP in the entire convention area. Agenda Item 6 Monitoring of pollution loads and review of the BSAP nutrient reduction scheme Documents: 6/1, 6/2, 6/3, 6/4, 6/5, 6/6, 6/7, 6/8, 6/9, 6/10, 6/11, 8/3 6.1 The Meeting took note of the updated table on expected nutrient load reductions in HELCOM countries that are also EU member states, stemming from the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) as contained in document 6/ The Meeting took note of the view of HELCOM LOAD 4/2012 that it would be important to know if the reductions are compared to a reference year/period, the expected effect after implementation of measures and by which year the load reductions at the rivers mouths are expected. 6.3 The Meeting also took note of the discussions by HELCOM LOAD 4/2012 concerning use of the figures in recalculation of BSAP nutrient reduction targets and countrywise allocations, noting that it is not feasible to use the information until data is available from all Contracting Parties. The Meeting noted that in order for the information to be included in Page 12 of 54

15 the revised BSAP nutrient reduction scheme, it would be necessary to estimate the expected reductions from different countries to the different sub-basins of the Baltic Sea. 6.4 The Meeting invited the HELCOM LOAD core group to revise the structure of table so that it can accommodate the additionally need information, including information in which round of WFD river management plans the reductions are planned (RBMP) and agreed that the updated table should be submitted to the Contracting Parties for filling in before the meeting of HELCOM LOAD 5/ The Meeting took note of the information by Denmark that they are currently preparing a document on the results of implementation of the first round of the WFD RBMP and the expected results of the second round. 6.6 The Meeting took note of the information by Finland that the expected reductions from the remaining 11 rivers have not been calculated but could be estimated and submitted in the next revision of the table in March 2013 after reporting of targets for these remaining rivers. 6.7 The Meeting took note that the German figures should be corrected to 1,040 tonnes N and 43.5 tonnes P and that these are based on the first round of the RBMPs for only Schlei-Trave river basin and the aim is to achieve these reductions by The Meeting noted that Germany should be able to provide further information in 2013, based on revised calculations making use of TARGREV targets. The Meeting also noted the request by Germany that the last sentence of their comment in the table should be deleted. 6.8 The Meeting took note of the information by Russia that St. Petersburg public organization Ecology and Business might be able to inform of expected nutrient reduction from the Saint Petersburg Oblast as a result of improved waste water treatment. 6.9 The Meeting took note that Estonia, Latvia and Poland have no more information to add at this stage The Meeting took note of the outcome of the fourth meeting of HELCOM Expert Group on follow-up of national progress towards reaching BSAP nutrient reduction targets (HELCOM LOAD 4/2012) as presented by the Chairman of HELCOM LOAD Mr. Lars M. Svendsen (presentation 5, document 6/5) and agreed to make use of the information when discussing the LOAD related matters during the Meeting The Meeting took note of the discussions by HELCOM LOAD 4/2012 concerning the possibility to include more detailed data on atmospheric phosphorus deposition to the Baltic Sea (presentation 5) in the calculations of revised BSAP maximum allowable input and new country allocated reduction targets. The reported phosphorus deposition until now suggests markedly lower deposition than the currently used 15 kg P per km 2 in the calculations by BNI, and using lower deposition values figures will lead to reduced reduction requirements from Contracting Parties on the waterborne phosphorus loads The Meeting invited the HELCOM LOAD group to further discuss how to proceed with this work The Meeting reminded Poland and Russia to forward information about their national monitoring or model results of phosphorus deposition to Mr. Lars M. Svendsen (lms@dmu.dk) with a copy to the Secretariat (minna.pyhala@helcom.fi) as soon as possible The Meeting urged Latvia to nominate their national contact to the HELCOM LOAD expert group. The Meeting took note of the information that the agency which previously was responsible for reporting PLC data is no longer a government organization but is now a private institute and that there is a need for national coordination concerning responsibility of the PLC tasks The Meeting agreed to arrange the next meeting of HELCOM LOAD (HELCOM LOAD 5/2013) on March 2013 and welcomed the offer of Estonia to host the meeting in Tallinn, Estonia. Page 13 of 54