WP3 was briefly presented. The WP consist of 3 parts:
- Development of the concept of blue corridors including tools. This work be organised by Georg Martin, Per Nilsson, and Karsten Dahl.
- Evaluation of representativity of NATURA 2000 and MPA networks in the Baltic Sea including tools. This work will be organised by WWF Sweden.
- Evaluation of coherence of NATURA 2000 and MPA sites including tools. This work will be organised by SYKE and WWF Finland.
Jan Ekebom informed the Meeting about the HELCOM BSPA project, which e.g. evaluates the coherence of existing BSPAs and could be a starting point for the BALANCE activities focusing on representativity, connectivity and coherence of MPAs.
The Meeting stressed the importance of use same definitions and methods as other for a (EU, conventions, projects).
The Meeting also discussed concepts and scales. In this connection it was agreed that the marine landscapes in principle should be describe for the entire Baltic Sea, while habitat mapping should take place in the four pilot areas depending on data availability.
The Meeting also touched and discussed expectations to WP1 and WP2 in term of e.g. data formats and data requirements. Socio-economic data is also needed from WP4. It was suggested that the presentations at the kick-off meeting should put emphasis on "inter WP collaboration", e.g. expectations and needs. It was discussed if the might be a potential risk of gaps in data. It was agreed to reopen this discussion at the kick-off meeting.
The Meeting reiterated that the main output of WP3 is the tools e.g. for establishing blue corridors, evaluation of Natura 2000/MPA networks etc – not the evaluations as such. Tools have to be applicable and easy to use by users!
Per Nilsson pointed out that data sets with different exactness and accuracy will lead to differences in the specific outputs. In plain language: "Garbage in = garbage out". It was agreed to discuss this at the kick-off meeting and to find out what to do if data are not of a good quality.
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