The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has initiated the participatory processes to prepare and approve the management plans for nine Sites of Community Importance (SCI), five Special Protection Areas for Birds (SPA) that partially or totally overlap in surface with these areas, as well as the Marine Protected Area of the Mediterranean Cetacean Migration Corridor.
The vulnerability and importance of the natural values present in these 15 areas makes it necessary to establish certain management measures, so that the human activities carried out are compatible with the maintenance or, where appropriate, the restoration of a favorable conservation status. These measures are articulated through management plans that will be prepared and approved in collaboration with the General Secretariat of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA).
A total of 10 management plans will be prepared, including measures for the 15 protected areas, in a participatory and coordinated manner with the social agents and sectors involved. This action, one of the milestones planned in the LIFE INTEMARES project, has the collaboration of WWF Spain in the design and coordination and is based on the results obtained in the previous LIFE+INDEMARES project, in which 10 SCIs and 39 SPAs were declared, totaling more than 7.3 million hectares.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES
Through the opening of a previous public consultation, the opinion of agents and sectors involved has been sought. This first consultation included the SCI Western submarine canyon system of the Gulf of León; SCI and SPA Banco de Galicia; SCI Sur de Almería – Seco de los Olivos and SPA Bahía de Almería; SCI and SPA Alborán marine area; SCI Canal de Menorca and the Marine Protected Area of the Mediterranean Cetacean Migration Corridor.
Soon, the second public consultation will begin for the rest of the areas corresponding to the SCI Eastern and southern Lanzarote-Fuerteventura marine area and SPA Lanzarote islets marine area; the SCI and SPA Banco de la Concepción; the SCI Gulf of Cadiz mud volcanoes; and the SCI Aviles Submarine Canyons System. Different actions are foreseen for participation, such as interviews; face-to-face workshops, public information period, as well as a social participation committee that will take place to evaluate and close the results.
HIGH ECOLOGICAL VALUE
These marine areas are home to habitats and species of community interest that have made them worthy of protection. In this sense, the SCI Western submarine canyon systems of the Gulf of León has a great variety of ecosystems and a rich biodiversity due to the abundance of plankton and krill, a source of food for fish and cetaceans and a source of carbon sequestration, which contributes to reducing the effects of climate change.
At 180 kilometers from the Galician coast is the Banco de Galicia, which has an underwater mountain through which the deep waters ascend loaded with nutrients, generating an oasis of biodiversity. Seco de los Olivos is also an underwater mountain located in the LIC Sur de Almería – Seco de los Olivos. Overlapping with this area is the Bahía de Almería SPA, an important feeding area for the Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus), the most endangered seabird in Europe.
Near this area is the LIC and ZEPA Alboran Marine Area, a transition zone between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with unique geographical and oceanographic conditions that contribute to the richness and uniqueness of marine life. In the LIC Canal de Menorca there is a wide diversity of habitats, from sandbanks to posidonia meadows, a marine plant that provides shelter and food for countless species.
Between the Catalan and Valencian coasts and the Balearic archipelago, the Marine Protected Area of the Mediterranean Cetacean Migration Corridor is located, an area of 46,385 km2 of vital importance for the survival of large cetaceans, such as the sperm whale and the fin whale.
In the Cantabrian Sea, the LIC Sistema de Cañones Submarinos de Avilés has an important diversity of species, some of them very vulnerable, such as corals, sponges and deep-sea sharks.
In the deep seabed of the Gulf of Cadiz, fluid emanations are produced, which build the mud volcanoes. The Gulf of Cadiz mud volcanoes SCI is home to a great diversity of reliefs and habitats of extraordinary ecological interest that generate unique conditions for the proliferation of certain species.
Finally, in the Canary Islands there is the SCI “Espacio marino del oriente y sur de Lanzarote-Fuerteventura”. One third of all cetacean species in the world can be sighted in this protected marine area. To the north of Lanzarote are also located the LIC and ZEPA Banco de la Concepción. The waters of this underwater mountain are loaded with nutrients that attract species of cetaceans, turtles, sharks and birds in search of food.
EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF PROTECTED AREAS
These processes are aligned with the Governance Strategy for the marine areas of the Natura 2000 Network and the Guide for participatory processes, tools developed in the LIFE INTEMARES project. The Biodiversity Foundation of MITECO coordinates the project. Participants include the Ministry itself, through the General Directorate of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification and the General Directorate of the Coast and Sea; the Regional Government of Andalusia, the Environment and Water Agency; the Spanish Institute of Oceanography; AZTI; the University of Alicante; the Polytechnic University of Valencia; the Spanish Fishing Confederation, SEO/BirdLife and WWF Spain. It is supported by the LIFE Program of the European Union.
