Presentation of the results of the LIFE+ INDEMARES project The Director General of Sustainability of the Coast and the Sea of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, Pablo Saavedra, today presented the results of the LIFE+ INDEMARES Project, which he described as “the most important project developed in Spain on marine conservation”.
This initiative has made it possible to increase the marine protected area in Spain from less than 1% to more than 8%, contributing to the objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which sets the percentage of protection of marine regions at at least 10%. LIFE+ INDEMARES is a project coordinated by the Ministry, through the Biodiversity Foundation, whose director, Sonia Castañeda, accompanied Saavedra in the presentation.
LIFE+ INDEMARES has studied almost five million marine hectares through 50 actions and 150 oceanographic campaigns. In addition, over the course of this project, more than 50 new marine species have been discovered and 33 scientific, management and communication committees have been held. In addition, it has managed a budget of 15.4 million euros co-financed 50% by the European Commission.
In addition, 300 collaborators and 23 organizations, including universities, foundations, associations and companies, have worked directly on the project. The involvement of society has also been promoted through public participation days with the fishing sector and other agents with interests in each of the areas.
49 NEW MARINE AREAS TO THE NATURA 2000 NETWORK
From the point of view of environmental conservation, the actions of the LIFE+ INDEMARES project have resulted in the inclusion of 49 new marine areas in the Natura 2000 Network, 39 of which correspond to SPAs, and the remaining ten to the figure of Site of Community Importance (SCI).
The Natura2000 Network, the European ecological network of biodiversity conservation areas, aims to ensure the long-term survival of the continent’s most threatened species and habitats, making them compatible with the development of socio-economic activities. In this context of EU environmental legislation, both SPAs and SCIs seek to comply with the European Birds and Habitats Directives, respectively.
PIONEERING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
All the information collected throughout the project has been integrated into a pioneering Geographic Information System (GIS), which will be part of the Nature Data Bank, and which has served as the basis for developing the management guidelines for all areas in order to establish the pillars for the future management of the Natura 2000 Network in the marine environment.
INDEMARES has promoted the awareness of society about the need to protect our marine resources. To this end, 11 public participation days have been held to present the project and find out the opinions of the different sectors. These days have been attended by more than 650 participants including local authorities, social agents and fishermen’s guilds.
NEW INFORMATIVE AND SCIENTIFIC MATERIAL
INDEMARES has also generated informative and scientific material that will allow us to expand knowledge about the values of our seas: 10 specific monographs on each of the proposed areas, a publication on the Natura 2000 Network in the marine environment in Spain and a documentary on the development of the project. In addition, various informative and training materials have been generated and distributed among the different sectors, especially the fishing sector, with the aim of promoting good practices in the accidental capture of turtles, birds and other species of interest.
The Director General of Sustainability of the Coast and the Sea has highlighted the challenge posed by the future management of these areas, which is intended to be carried out “in an innovative, demonstrative and participatory way, for which we hope that the European Commission will continue to give us its support through the proposal for an integrated project” that has been introduced.
IMPORTANT FINDINGS IN ALMOST ALL AREAS OF STUDY
Coordinated by the Ministry’s Biodiversity Foundation, the project has had a participatory approach and has integrated the work of leading institutions in the field of management, research and conservation of the marine environment: the Ministry itself, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, the Spanish National Research Council, ALNITAK, the Coordinator for the Study of Marine Mammals, OCEANA, the Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canary Islands, SEO/BirdLife and WWF Spain.
Throughout the project, species have been found that had not previously been located in the waters of study, and even that are new to science.
NEW SPECIES FOUND
For example, in the Bank of Galicia, in one of the oceanographic campaigns of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), a new species of deep-sea crab, Uroptychus cartesi, has been found, a small orange crustacean no more than 7 centimeters in length. This species lives on corals and gorgonians, very common in the Bank of Galicia where they form very characteristic habitats.
Another of the findings is the existence of a complex and unknown system of tributary canyons to the main axis of the Avilés canyon and that finally flow into the abyssal plain of the Bay of Biscay at a depth of 4,800 meters. One of these tributary canyons presents unique aspects in terms of its geological characteristics and current dynamics, as well as the presence at great depth of a remarkable and well-structured cold-water coral reef. The main structuring species of the reef are the corals Madrepora oculata and Lophelia pertusa, which considerably increase the complexity of the habitat so they are accompanied by numerous other species of gorgonians, antipathians, glass sponges, echinoderms, king crabs and fish, considerably increasing biodiversity.
The biodiversity of the mud volcanoes of the Gulf of Cadiz could exceed 1,000 species after one of the IEO expeditions. In this campaign, through direct observation carried out with underwater robots, the state of conservation of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the waters of the Gulf of Cadiz has been analysed and that are related to the phenomena of expulsion of sedimentary fluids loaded with methane gas.
STUDIES ON CETACEANS
The studies on cetaceans that the Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canary Islands (SECAC) has carried out in the southern and eastern areas of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote have revealed that it is one of the most important places in the world for cetaceans, highlighting the presence of 28 species of cetaceans out of the 90 existing. Many of them are year-round residents like the bottlenose dolphin, and others use the area for feeding, reproduction or simply passing through their migrations.
Finally, it is worth highlighting the extensive information obtained through the markings of seabirds with GPS and censuses such as those carried out with the Balearic shearwater or Audouin’s Gull by SEO/BirdLife, which have made it possible to confirm the ecological value of the 39 areas declared as SPAs.
