The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment has proposed to the European Commission the inclusion of four large marine areas in the list of Sites of Community Importance (SCI) of the Natura 2000 Network
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment has proposed to the European Commission the inclusion of four large marine areas in the list of Sites of Community Importance (SCI) of the Natura 2000 Network.
 
The proposed marine areas include the Western Submarine Canyon System of the Gulf of Lion and the Menorca Channel, in the Levantine-Balearic marine demarcation; the mud volcanoes of the Gulf of Cadiz, in the South Atlantic demarcation; and the Bank of Galicia, in the North Atlantic demarcation. These areas cover more than 1.7 million hectares.
 
The ministerial order published today submits to the European Commission the Spanish proposal for the inclusion of these areas in the List of Sites of Community Importance of the Natura 2000 Network and provides information on their geographical limits, surface area and the values for which they are proposed. Likewise, a preventive protection regime is included until these spaces are designated by the Commission as SCIs.
 
This proposal to include areas in the Natura 2000 Network comes after a long and in-depth study of these areas within the framework of the LIFE+ INDEMARES project “Inventory and designation of the Natura 2000 Network in marine areas of the Spanish State“, coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation.
 
This project began in 2009 with the development of oceanographic campaigns entrusted to several research teams and has as partners, in addition to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, 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 Rhodolith Bottoms or Maërl in the Menorca Channel of Rhodoliths or Maërl in the Menorca Channel of Rhodoliths or Maërl in the Menorca Channel Maërl in the Menorca Channel in the Canary Islands, SEO/BirdLife and WWF Spain.
 
The four areas that are now proposed as SCIs within the Natura 2000 Network are added to the 39 Special Protection Areas for Birds (SPAs) in Spanish marine waters that were recently declared and corroborate the Ministry’s great commitment to the development of the Natura 2000 Network in the marine area in Spain.
 
More information on the proposed areas and the rest of the areas of the LIFE+INDEMARES project can be found on the Ministry’s website.
 
Photo: Rhodolith or Maërl fund in the Menorca Canal /IEO