Marine Protection in the Baltic Sea: An Analysis of the Implementation Duration for Marine Protected Areas

This project examines the problem of why there is often a long duration between proposing a marine protected area (MPA) and implementing the MPA. The European Union has a vast network of proposed MPAs, but not enough are implemented to create an effective network. By analyzing the Baltic Sea, whose marine network is overseen by the regional body HELCOM, this project seeks to define what factors lead to implementation being delayed or expedited. Fisheries, regional governance, EU governance, and geographic concerns were some of the variables included. Data limitations made it difficult to find definitive conclusions, but the results of the duration analysis did reveal that EU and regional marine protection measures can help speed up implementation of MPAs.