Biogeographical seminar for the Baltic Sea area
On 23-25 November 2009 a biogeography Natura 2000 for the Baltic Sea area seminar was held in Sopot. The seminar was organised by the European Commission, whereas the General Directoriate for Environmental Protection prepared the logistic and technical side.
The aim of this meeting was to assess the completeness of the Natura 2000 network within the Baltic Sea. It has been examined whether each type of habitats and species, which lives in the marine environment are sufficiently protected in the proposed areas. To date, bio-geographical seminars were organised for 9 regions designated on the European continent. In view of the specific nature of maritime areas, in the current year they were started to be organized separately for each sea - the Baltic Seminar was the second, after a similar assessment for the Atlantic region, which took place in March 2009 in Ireland.
The meeting was attended by over 60 people - representatives of the European Commission, the European Topic Centre - Biological Diversity, delegates of eight Baltic Sea Member States (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Poland, Sweden), representatives of environmental non-governmental organizations and observers.
As a result of the expert discussions, representatives of the European Commission agreed that, in the Polish part of the Baltic Sea, it is necessary to enlarge the two areas (PLH220032 the Bay of Puck and Hel Peninsula and PLH220022 Ostoja Słowińska), as well as create a single new reef structure comprising around Kępa Redłowska. Furthermore, the assessments of habitats and species should be completed and corrected in the Standard Data Forms for some areas and research carried out in order to determine the presence of river and sea lamprey and the porpoise in selected parts of the Polish waters of the Baltic Sea.
On the last day of the seminar, the participants went on a trip to the Hel Peninsula, during which they became familiar with its natural values and specific problems for the conservation of nature in the area.
