SOS at the 2024 National MSP Days

The first national Marine Spatial Planning Days were held in Helsinki on November 27-28, 2024, organized by the Finnish MSP Coordination in cooperation with some of their key collaborators. SOS took part in the event with a workshop exploring the biodiversity impacts of offshore wind farms.

The workshop by SOS included a short presentation by Doctoral Researcher Thaysa Portela de Carvalho. Photo: Malla Lehtonen

The theme of the MSP Days was “Maritime Spatial Planning and the European Green Deal (EGD).” During the two days, well over 100 MSP stakeholders from various branches and fields gathered to discuss issues related to the EGD objectives in marine areas – one of the crosscutting themes of the Finnish MSP revision work. SOS was invited to contribute with a session on the status and needs for marine research, and organized a workshop focusing on the biodiversity impacts of offshore wind development. Below is a short summary of the workshop and related upcoming research.

Establishing the status and needs for marine research from the perspective of offshore wind energy

The session, led by SOS and facilitated by Sweco Finland, kickstarted with a brief presentation on offshore wind energy development, which often is regarded as a pillar in the EU policies for achieving a climate neutral future and even as a solution to the interconnected triple planetary crisis (climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss). However, offshore wind energy development can also produce negative effects in the environment. Therefore, planning and innovative solutions are needed to avoid negative impacts and maximize benefits. In her presentation, Thaysa Portela de Carvalho introduced the Biodiversity Mitigation Hierarchy (figure 1), a framework widely used for identifying and prioritizing mitigation actions, which were illustrated by a couple of examples. Linkages with MSP were also highlighted.

Figure 1: The mitigation hierarchy framework.

Following the presentation, the participants were invited to answer a short online survey on biodiversity-related information gaps and needs regarding offshore wind. A total of 63 people responded to the survey. The survey revealed the audience was composed by a diverse array of stakeholders: researchers, project developers, NGOs and public sector representatives. According to the survey, the most significant gap in addressing the biodiversity impacts of offshore wind in Finland relates to knowledge (figure 2).

Figure 2: Responses regarding the most significant gaps addressing the biodiversity impacts of offshore wind in Finland.

A plenary discussion continued the engagement, with the workshop participants sharing their perceptions on offshore-wind-related biodiversity information and regulatory frameworks in Finland. For instance, regarding knowledge gaps, there is a lack of knowledge in the EEZ in VELMU’s programme, transboundary biodiversity knowledge (e.g. between Finland and Sweden), overall lack of knowledge in geological diversity, gaps in what are the consequences of displacement of species in marine areas caused by offshore windfarms, and how the offshore windfarms affect fish stocks. Nevertheless, according to one participant, decisions need to be made even when there is a lack of knowledge. Moreover, several participants mentioned the importance of carrying out impact assessment for cumulative impacts to inform knowledge gaps and regulatory barriers.

Upcoming work

  • The results of the workshop will be further analyzed and used to inform the next steps of a case study related to biodiversity impacts in the context of offshore wind in Finland.
  • An additional short survey on addressing biodiversity impacts in offshore wind energy development in Finland is still open in Webropol:  https://link.webropolsurveys.com/S/28A427F643E9FF29 .
    We welcome your insights and would greatly appreciate it if you could share this survey with anyone who might be interested!
  • The work is part of Thaysa Portela de Carvalho’s doctoral research in the Laboratory of Industrial Management at Åbo Akademi University. If you would like to participate in the research, please contact her at thaysa.porteladecarvalho@abo.fi