WWF/Adena has made public in Madrid a pioneering proposal to create a Representative Network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Spain with the aim of conserving the richest seascapes. With this initiative, WWF/Adena aims to promote the implementation by 2020 of a viable, well-managed network that covers at least 10% of the surface of our seas and coasts.

WWF/Adena has identified for the first time the most amazing, unique and biodiversity-rich marine submerged sites, both in the Canary Islands and in the waters of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. Among all of them, its experts have chosen 20 threatened sites that must be legally protected as soon as possible to allow for a coherent Network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that is representative of the marine wealth of our country.

It is important to note that, although part of it has been lost, the richness of the seabed of our country is still remarkable. Under our waters and depending on the different regions, there are biological communities to which much attention has been paid in the WWF/Adena proposal. For example, meadows of Posidonia oceanica and Sebadales, gorgonian forests, coralligens, caves, Maërl bottoms, Atlantic laminaria forests or deep coral banks.

The main objective of WWF/Adena is to establish and implement by 2020 a representative and viable network, which is well managed and covers at least 10% of the surface of our seas. In fact, Marine Protected Areas in Spain, as is the case in the Mediterranean, do not reach 1% of the total marine area. In our country, there are currently only two maritime-terrestrial national parks, 10 Marine Fisheries Reserves and some 38 coastal-maritime areas with some type of protection by the Autonomous Communities.