Protected Areas on the Baltic Sea

Along the Baltic Sea coast there are numerous protected areas. Their purpose is to protect nature, the landscape, and also the cultural achievements of the people who live along the Baltic coast. The main focus, however, is clearly on protecting nature, both on land and in the Baltic Sea. Protected areas around the Baltic Sea can have various designations: national park, nature reserve, biosphere reserve, nature park, Flora-Fauna-Habitat, bird sanctuary, natural monument, and several others. Most of these designations are governed by statutory requirements; some, such as nature parks, have regional significance and are protected by local residents.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites on the Baltic Sea
UNESCO World Heritage Sites enjoy special, internationally recognized protection, and several of them are also located along the Baltic Sea.
The Curonian Spit, a coastal strip around 100 kilometers long and only a few kilometers wide, which separates the Curonian Lagoon in Lithuania from the Baltic Sea, was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2000. The archipelago coast off Sweden and Finland in the Gulf of Bothnia, the Kvarken Archipelago, was granted this status in 2006. The beech forests in Jasmund National Park on the island of Rügen have been part of the World Heritage Site, together with other German beech forests, since 2011.

Protected status does not mean that these places are inaccessible to the public. On the contrary, the national parks around the Baltic Sea have also become popular holiday destinations. Their appeal as places to visit and sources of information is due in particular to the preservation of their natural environments. National parks are the most prominent of the protected areas. We will introduce them all here one by one. The first include the two German national parks, Western Pomerania Lagoon Area and Jasmund on Rügen. In 2008, Denmark designated three new national parks along the coasts of the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat. In Sweden , several national parks line the Baltic coast; in Finland, the skerries of the Åland Islands are included, while Poland has two national parks along its Baltic coast.

Dünen im Slowinzischen Nationalpark bei Leba Photo: © Wikimedia / Chron-Paul CC BY-SA 3.0

Jasmund National Park

At just 30 square kilometres, Germany’s smallest national park, established in 1990, is located on Germany’s largest island, Rügen. It encompasses one of the island’s most fascinating areas: the chalk cliffs on the Jasmund Peninsula, including the 116-metre-high Königsstuhl, one of the most popular destinations for visitors on a holiday on Germany’s Baltic coast.

Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park

In the heart of a traditional holiday region, on the Fischland-Darß-Zingst Peninsula and in the surrounding waters stretching to the islands of Rügen and Hiddensee, the approximately 800-square-kilometre Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park was established in 1990. It also includes a small part of Rügen’s west coast, parts of the islands of Hiddensee and Ummanz, several smaller islands, and the adjacent Baltic Sea down to a water depth of 10 metres.