The director of the Biodiversity Foundation inaugurated today, accompanied by Carlos Vales Vázquez, director of the Center for University Extension and Environmental Dissemination of Galicia (CEIDA), the conference “The ÁRTABRO2 project and governance in the marine environment”.

The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Elena Pita, inaugurated today, accompanied by Carlos Vales Vázquez, director of the Center for University Extension and Environmental Dissemination of Galicia (CEIDA), the conference “The ÁRTABRO2 project and governance in the marine environment”.

Elena Pita presented the programmes and lines of work of the Biodiversity Foundation in the marine environment, highlighting how, thanks to projects such as LIFE INTEMARES or the Pleamar Programme, the Biodiversity Foundation contributes to reaching 30% of marine protected areas by 2030.

During this session, the results of the project “Towards the integrated management of marine SPAs in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula” (ÁRTABRO2), which has been developed within the framework of the Pleamar Programme, co-financed by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), were presented.

This initiative is the second part of the project “Ártabras Birds. Bases participativas para la declaración de una ZEPA en el Golfo Ártabro “, in which the creation of a SPA in the Golfo Ártabro was proposed, a territory that shares seabird populations and problems related to maritime traffic and mortality in fishing gear, which require joint management at the regional level. In this second part, progress has been made in the proposal for this SPA and a comprehensive management is proposed, covering the Gulf of Ártabro and three marine SPAs, improving the scientific knowledge of the populations of seabirds present on the coast of the province of A Coruña and proposing comprehensive management measures that allow their conservation to be compatible with fishing and coastal activities.

It should be noted that during ÁRTABRO2 intense monitoring of the migratory passage of seabirds on the Galician coast has been carried out: almost 1,000 hours of observation, more than 50,000 birds counted and almost two million birds estimated.

During the conference aimed at promoting the conservation of the birds of our coast with the presentation of the results of the project, Juan Carlos Atienza, head of Environmental Governance and International Agreements of SEO/BirdLife, and Antonio García Allut, executive director of the Lonxanet Foundation for sustainable fishing, participated. To close the session, a space for dialogue was opened to discuss with the attendees the new models of governance and participation for the management of the marine environment and its protected areas.