Stewardship in the Baltic Blue Bioeconomy: How Market Mechanisms Transform Marine Environmental Governance

Background and goals

The biodiversity crisis and market-based governance

Biodiversity loss is one of the defining crises of our time. One million species face extinction, and human activity has significantly degraded three-quarters of land environments and two-thirds of marine environments. The Baltic Sea is a vivid local example: agricultural runoff creates oxygen-depleted dead zones that destroy underwater habitats.

Governments and businesses are increasingly turning to market-based tools to respond (biodiversity credits, natural capital accounting, and ecosystem service payments are now embedded in major policy frameworks like the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework). The underlying idea is that by giving nature a financial value, we can protect it more effectively.

But this raises a fundamental tension. Stewardship (caring responsibly for something valuable that isn't yours) has traditionally meant long-term commitment, relational accountability, and values that go beyond money. Market mechanisms work differently: they rely on financial calculation, standardisation, and tradeable units. This research asks whether translating nature into credits and accounts strengthens genuine care for ecosystems, or reduces that care to a transaction.

These questions are urgent for Nordic and Baltic companies now required under EU law (CSRD) to report on their nature-related impacts, for policymakers investing in biodiversity credit schemes, and for environmental advocates seeking effective conservation tools. Food is one arena where this plays out in everyday life (it is where financialised nature meets consumption, and where companies must balance credible environmental action with credible marketing claims). Understanding how market mechanisms reshape stewardship (in boardrooms and at the dinner table) is what this research sets out to do.

This project connects to Arcada's Research Profile: Sustainable Engineering, Business and Behaviour, sitting at the intersection of environmental governance, business practice, and the everyday behaviours through which sustainability is (or isn't) achieved.

Objectives and benefits

When ecological processes get translated into credits, accounts, and governance frameworks, what actually happens to our relationship with nature? This project examines that question through two concrete cases in the Baltic Sea region: reed harvesting that removes nutrients from the water (BalticReed), and mussel and seaweed cultivation that enhances biodiversity (Under Ytan). In both cases, natural processes are being turned into measurable, tradeable, and governable units. The project has three aims:

1. Understand how nature-credit systems are built and what they do
How are biodiversity and nutrient credits actually constructed (through measurement protocols, verification systems, and governance arrangements) and what do these constructions change? This includes examining how financial accounting transforms corporate environmental responsibility, how biodiversity claims on food products influence consumer behaviour, and how companies distinguish genuine environmental action from greenwashing.

2. Examine how reporting requirements reshape accountability
New disclosure rules (such as CSRD and TNFD) are changing who is responsible for what, and what environmental work becomes visible. This aim explores how these regimes reorganise relationships between financial, regulatory, ecological, and societal obligations.

3. Identify why credit markets stall and what would make them work
Despite being technically feasible, biodiversity and nutrient credit markets have been slow to emerge. This aim diagnoses the obstacles (incomplete regulation, missing verification capacity, mismatches between ecological timescales and business needs) and identifies what conditions would allow these markets to function durably.

Results

Results and dissemination

The project will produce 2–3 peer-reviewed publications between 2026 and 2027, the majority of which will be open access.

Planned publications

1. *Accounting for Nature in the Making: How Biodiversity Credits Reconfigure Environmental Accountability in Baltic Blue Bioeconomy

2. Materializing the Blue Circular Economy: Infrastructure, Politics, and Market Emergence in Baltic Nutrient Credit System

3. Consumer Stewardship and the Mitigation of Rebound Effects in Blue Bioeconomy Markets*

Beyond academic publishing, findings will be shared through company workshops, seminars, and lectures in Bachelor and Master programmes (including the Digital and Sustainable Business Transformation MA course). Intermediate results will also be communicated through Arcada's webpages, social media, and scientific blog.

Societal impact

Broader impact

UN Sustainable Development Goals

The research contributes directly to SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG 13 (Climate Action), with secondary contributions to SDG 15, 17, and 4. Findings are relevant to the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and the EU Green Deal, particularly in assessing whether biodiversity credit mechanisms deliver genuine conservation outcomes.

Policy and business relevance

The research offers practical guidance for Finnish authorities and EU governance bodies on implementing credible environmental disclosure and designing credit mechanisms that work in practice. For blue economy companies, it provides evidence-based assessment of credit viability and infrastructure requirements. Companies that develop effective sustainability governance stand to gain competitive advantage as EU requirements tighten.

Education

The project generates teaching materials connecting Business, Engineering, Healthcare, and IT perspectives through shared real-world cases. Together, these build the integrative thinking that sustainability careers increasingly demand.

**Resilience and environmental justice**

The research asks not just whether credit markets work, but who they work for — examining who benefits and who bears costs when nature is financialised, whether local knowledge counts alongside scientific measurement, and whether the care work of environmental stewardship becomes visible and valued.

Abstract

Abstract

Biodiversity loss is accelerating, and market-based tools such as biodiversity credits and natural capital accounting are increasingly seen as part of the solution. But do these mechanisms genuinely strengthen environmental stewardship, or reduce care for nature to a financial calculation?

This project examines that question through two Baltic Sea cases (BalticReed and Under Ytan), analysing how credit systems are built and why they stall, how disclosure requirements (CSRD, TNFD) reshape corporate accountability, and how biodiversity claims influence consumer behaviour.

Connecting to Arcada's Research Profile: Sustainable Engineering, Business and Behaviour, findings will inform policymakers, businesses, and educators navigating the terrain where market mechanisms meet environmental responsibility.

Sustainable development goals