Publication in the Official State Gazette of the Ministerial Order of the proposal to the EC of the SCI of Lanzarote-Fuerteventura. The The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment has approved a proposal to the European Commission for the inclusion of the Eastern and Southern Marine Area of Lanzarote-Fuerteventura in the list of Sites of Community Importance (SCI) of the Natura 2000 Network.

The Ministerial Order published today in the The Official State Gazette provides information on the surface, geographical limits and environmental values for which this marine area is proposed as an SCI, and includes a preventive protection regime until the area is designated as such by the European Commission. Among the high natural values of this area are habitats included in the Habitats Directive, such as reefs and sandbanks permanently covered by shallow seawater, threatened species such as the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and a great diversity of cetacean species such as the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), sperm whales, beaked whales or fin whales.

This proposal for the inclusion of the marine area of the East and South of Lanzarote-Fuerteventura in the Natura 2000 Network comes after an exhaustive study of the area 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 of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, and of which the Ministry itself is a partner together with 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.

With this proposal for an SCI of the marine area of the East and South of Lanzarote-Fuerteventura, Spain will increase its area in the Natura 2000 Network of marine scope by more than 14000 km2, ensuring that 8 percent of our seas are protected. Spain is thus approaching the goal set by the Convention on Biological Diversity of protecting 10 percent of its marine areas by 2020.