The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment (MAPAMA) is holding two workshops in the Canary Islands with socio-economic sectors, public administrations and scientists with the aim of promoting social participation in the preparation of a ministerial order that will regulate nautical-recreational activities in the Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) under the jurisdiction of the State on these islands.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is hosting a workshop today with the participation of representatives of MAPAMA, the Government Sub-delegation in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the Ministry of the Environment of the Government of the Canary Islands, among others.
These meetings, which are held within the framework of LIFE IP INTEMARES, the largest marine conservation project in Europe coordinated by MAPAMA, will serve to draw up a ministerial order for the regulation of nautical-recreational activities in several marine SACs in the Canary Islands, with the aim of developing them in a way that is compatible with the favourable conservation of the natural values of these spaces.
Through this participatory process, the aim is to learn first-hand about the uses and activities carried out in these protected areas, to identify the pressures to which their species and habitats are subjected, as well as to propose measures to reduce the associated impacts, which will include a zoning of the different uses and activities. Some of the activities whose regulation will be necessary are recreational fishing, the use of jet skis and other fast boats, anchoring boats or diving.
MAPAMA will also hold a workshop tomorrow in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to regulate activity in the protected areas of the eastern islands.
PROMOTION OF ACTIVE PARTICIPATION
Participation is one of the transversal axes of the LIFE IP INTEMARES project. With these workshops, a new space for “online” participation is opened in which any entity or interested person can send their proposals.
Over the next eight years, an extensive programme of actions will be implemented linked to research, monitoring and surveillance, conservation, governance and training, as well as communication, awareness and environmental education on marine and coastal biodiversity and the Natura 2000 Network. With this initiative, Spain will be able to comply with the international commitment to effectively and sustainably protect more than 10% of its marine area.
The LIFE IP INTEMARES project is coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment, through the Biodiversity Foundation, and also acts as a partner through the General Directorate of Sustainability of the Coast and the Sea. The Spanish Institute of Oceanography, the Spanish Fisheries Confederation, SEO/BirdLife and WWF-Spain participate as partners. It has the financial contribution of the European Union’s LIFE Programme, as well as the European Social Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, among other sources of funding.
