MAPAMA is holding two participatory workshops in the Canary Islands to regulate nautical-recreational activities in the SACs.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment (MAPAMA) is holding two workshops in the Canary Islands with socio-economic sectors, public administrations and scientists with the aim of promoting social participation in the preparation of a ministerial order that will regulate nautical-recreational activities in the Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) under the jurisdiction of the State on these islands.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife today hosted a workshop with the participation of representatives of MAPAMA, the Government Sub-delegation in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the Ministry of the Environment of the Government of the Canary Islands, among others.

These meetings, which are held within the framework of LIFE IP INTEMARES, the largest marine conservation project in Europe coordinated by MAPAMA, will serve to draw up a ministerial order for the regulation of nautical-recreational activities in several marine SACs in the Canary Islands, with the aim of developing them in a way that is compatible with the favourable conservation of the natural values of these spaces.

Through this participatory process, the aim is to learn first-hand about the uses and activities carried out in these protected areas, to identify the pressures to which their species and habitats are subjected, as well as to propose measures to reduce the associated impacts, which will include a zoning of the different uses and activities. Some of the activities whose regulation will be necessary are recreational fishing, the use of jet skis and other fast boats, anchoring boats or diving.

MAPAMA will also hold a workshop tomorrow in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to regulate activity in the protected areas of the eastern islands.

INTEMARES in simultaneous events

Today, MAPAMA, through the Biodiversity Foundation, has presented the LIFE IP INTEMARES project in three other national and international forums. Specifically, the project’s actions aimed at the protection of marine ecosystems have been announced at the expert workshop “Developing transmission electricity grids, protecting our seas” that Red Eléctrica de España has held in Palma de Mallorca.

The Biodiversity Foundation has also participated in the conference “The Natura 2000 Network in the EAFRD 2014-2020 programming”, which the Network of Environmental Authorities has carried out in Madrid. At this meeting, the Priority Action Framework for the financing of the Natura 2000 Network in Spain was presented and, as an example, its application in the marine environment. Finally, LIFE IP INTEMARES has also been presented in Brussels at the meeting of the expert group of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund committee as a demonstration project in the integration of different funds.