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Year 2025 of the Baltic Sea Challenge in a Nutshell

2025 contained many diverse cooperations and concrete steps towards a cleaner Baltic Sea. Below, we have summarised a few of the steps taken by Turku and Helsinki in their Baltic Sea work last year.

Extracts From the Cities’ Baltic Sea Work During Last Year

  • The City of Turku prepared a catchment-area-level management plan for the Jaaninoja urban stream.
  • Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association and the Baltic Sea Challenge jointly collected floating litter from the Aura River during the busy summer months. The aim was to gather information on litter in the Aura River while highlighting how waters flowing through cities contribute to marine litter in the Baltic Sea.
  • The City of Turku introduced the Crowdsorsa application, enabling residents to participate more effectively in the control of invasive species.
  • In Helsinki, a new nature conservation programme was approved, increasing the protected marine area to approximately one percent. The programme covers the majority of locally ecologically significant marine areas (PEMMA).
  • The Baltic Sea Challenge and Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association carried out a communication campaign targeting small boat harbours, focusing on waste management, responsible boat maintenance and noise.
  • Helsinki continued eelgrass restoration in both existing and new sites in cooperation with the John Nurminen Foundation.
  • The EU Interreg project ChemClimCircle2 was launched, with Helsinki and Turku participating in its implementation. The project aims to promote sustainable public procurement. In Turku, initial focus was placed on public cleaning services and the water bus operating to the City’s outdoor recreation island. In Helsinki, pilot activities focused on, among other things, cleaning agents, workwear procurement, ICT equipment and lawn care products.
  • Turku prepared a draft concept for a new type of Baltic Sea Street. The purpose of the street is to increase residents’ ocean literacy. The completed draft was linked to the zoning process of the Marine Quarter located in the Linnanniemi district.
  • Turku collected valuable new types of monitoring data on coastal water quality in cooperation with several municipalities and Turku University of Applied Sciences.

The work continues together during 2026!