WWF, like many organizations and governments around the region, welcomed Helcom’s initiative to launch the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) process nearly two years ago. The ambitions of the BSAP to deliver wide-scale and decisive actions necessary to achieve a good ecological status for the Baltic Sea was seen by WWF and many others as fulfilling a critical need to achieve ecosystem based management in the Baltic Sea region. Further, the BSAP process was also seen as a unique opportunity to unite the countries around the Baltic Sea in one shared action plan. In practice, however, this opportunity appears to have been lost due to the lack of political will, accountability and leadership of the governments – i.e. The Contracting Parties (Cps) to HELCOM – around the region.