Summary/History
The Swedish marine IBAs are found in both the brackish Baltic environment and the marine Skagerack and Kattegatt environments and include both coastal, offshore bank and archipelago areas which have habitats for breeding, migratory and overwintering populations of seabirds. The number of seabird species in Sweden is low as typical seabird habitats (such as seabird cliffs) are rare and only found at the IBAs of Lilla and Stora Karslo. Priority trigger include rare species such as the Long-tailed Duck (VU) with the IBA at Hoburgs bank holding up to one million individuals of this species overwinter each year, the Velvet Scoter (EN), the Caspian Tern (LC), Common Guillemot (LC) and Razorbill (LC). Systematic seabird species are lacking for many areas and therefore knowledge of population numbers and distribution of some species is restricted. However, for most species, there is enough data to reveal population status and trends at a national level. This demonstrates that the population size of the majority of species are increasing or remaining stable, however notably the rarer species are showing declines.

Key threats to Swedish seabirds include:
o Pollution including oil spills, and eutrophication which are leading to deteriorating water quality
o Overfishing and bycatch in fyke-net and gill-net fisheries
o Accidental introduction and spread of the American mink
o An as yet unknown disease which recently killed a considerable number of individuals
o Wind-farms

National priorities
o Gain effective protection for those coastal and marine IBAs which still are not legally protected (not yet included in the N2000/SPA -network). This requires both lobbying towards authorities and the public and involvement of other relevant stakeholders.
o Improve monitoring which is insufficient for some species and areas. The latter holds in particular for the off-shore banks.
o Assessment of threats and working on mitigation measures.

Government's support/relevant policy
BirdLife's Swedish partner, SOF, claims that the government is willing to start N2000/ SPA designations as well as taking action nationally and internationally to counteract water pollution and associated threats to seabirds. Please see policy tab for list of agreements that this country is party to.

References
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