For the purposes of water management planning, Mainland Finland is divided into seven river basin districts, each of which has its own river basin management plan. Åland constitutes the eighth river basin district and draws up a river basin management plan of its own. These plans form the basis for water protection in each river basin district. The Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres) and the Government of Åland prepare a programme of measures for their respective regions, which provide the information necessary to achieve and maintain good water status. Programmes of measures under marine strategies include an assessment of the current state of the marine environment, the targets set to achieve good environmental status and a programme of measures. The programme of measures of Finland’s marine strategy covers Finland’s territorial marine waters in their entirety from the shoreline to the outer border of the economic zone. The Government of Åland prepares a programme of measures for its own territorial waters.

The current six-year programme period for the management of waters and the marine environment (2016–2021) was launched at the beginning of 2016. The implementation of the measures was evaluated at the end of 2018.