Videoconference of 10 coastal autonomous communities and cities with competences in the management of the marine Natura 2000 Network

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, chaired a meeting that was attended by videoconference by 10 coastal autonomous communities and cities with competences in the management of the marine Natura 2000 Network to move towards the priority of reaching 30% of marine protected and well-managed areas by 2030.

Specifically, representatives from Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Community, the Region of Murcia, Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Melilla have participated in this third political meeting framed in the LIFE INTEMARES project, which is coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and has the ministry itself as a partner. Morán was accompanied by the general director of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification, Jorge Marquínez, as well as the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Elena Pita.

The Secretary of State for the Environment thanked the Autonomous Communities for their involvement in joint marine conservation actions and stressed the importance of inter-administrative coordination to ensure that marine protected areas in Spain “are international benchmarks for adequate, pioneering, participatory and science-based management”.

Morán has underlined the “strategic interest” of marine conservation for this government within the framework of green recovery. “We promote a transition towards models that prioritize the protection and restoration of nature and that also guarantee the conservation and sustainable use of resources. Also at sea, where the ecological and just transition offers great opportunities and also great challenges,” he said.

Among the goals, he stressed that Spain continues to move towards greater marine protection. In just a few years, Spain has gone from protecting less than 1% of the marine surface to more than 12% today. Thanks to this great achievement, Spain is one of the few European countries that has exceeded the coverage threshold committed to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), set at 10%.

At the moment, efforts are aimed at achieving 30% protection by 2030 through the declaration of new marine protected areas and effectively managed, as set out in the European Union’s 2030 Biodiversity Strategy and this government’s Declaration of Climate Emergency. “We must strengthen the network of marine protected areas and ensure that it is well managed, connected and ecologically representative,” Morán stressed.

Through the LIFE INTEMARES project, there is a commitment to achieve coverage of more than 15% of the marine protected area by 2023. To this end, oceanographic studies are being carried out in 9 new areas, which could be declared within the framework of the Natura 2000 Network. In addition, the level of protection of our seas is being analysed in order to draw up proposals to expand and complete this network of protected areas in Spain.

Do you want to know more about LIFE INTEMARES?

The LIFE INTEMARES project, which is at the halfway point of its implementation, is working to ensure that this increase in marine protected areas is associated with the improvement of knowledge, as well as the strengthening of coordination and a governance structure from a participatory approach that integrates all managers, agents and users of the sea.

The LIFE INTEMARES project is coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation, of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, and the General Directorate of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification of the Ministry itself participates as partners; the Spanish Institute of Oceanography; the Spanish Fisheries Confederation; SEO/BirdLife and WWF Spain. It has the financial contribution of the LIFE program of the European Union.