The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment coordinates through the Biodiversity Foundation, the LIFE IP INTEMARES project.
The European Commission has selected the project “Integrated, innovative and participatory management of the Natura 2000 Network in the Spanish marine environment (LIFE IP INTEMARES)” that the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment presented last April to the LIFE call for Integrated Projects of the European Commission.
Integrated projects seek to implement on a large territorial scale the environmental plans or strategies required by specific European Union regulations, or drawn up by Member States’ authorities, mainly in the fields of nature, including the management of the Natura 2000 Network, while ensuring the participation of stakeholders and promoting full coordination with other EU funding sources, national or private.
The LIFE IP INTEMARES project, the first and only integrated nature project in Spain, aims to achieve a consolidated network of marine areas in the Natura 2000 Network managed in an effective and integrated way, with the active participation of the sectors involved and with research as basic tools for decision-making.
This will be done based on the Priority Action Framework in the marine Natura 2000 Network, which is the document that defines the priorities and conservation actions necessary for the Network in the period 2014-2020 and the sources of funding.
Coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation, it has as partners the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, WWF-Spain, SEO/BirdLife, and CEPESCA and the support of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds.
ACTIONS WITH AN INVESTMENT OF 50 MILLION EUROS
The actions, which will be carried out until 31 December 2024, have a total cost of 49.8 million euros, of which 27.3 million correspond to the contribution of the European Commission through the LIFE Programme. The project will also mobilise other funds: 10.3 million euros from the European Social Fund, 11 million from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and 1.2 million from the calls for general aid managed by the Biodiversity Foundation.
This initiative, and through 50 actions, aims to improve knowledge, complete the Natura 2000 Network at sea, effective management of its spaces, ensure the maintenance or restoration of the favourable conservation status of habitats and species of Community interest, optimise surveillance and monitoring, provide appropriate training and training to achieve the conservation objectives established in Natura 2000 areas, as well as to promote information, awareness and cooperation between agents involved in their conservation. Finally, it is intended to train the managers of the areas declared under the Natura 2000 Network and to promote governance mechanisms for these spaces.
In addition, INTEMARES promotes innovative approaches in relation to the marine Natura 2000 Network to become reference areas for a new productive model within the framework of a blue and low-carbon economy, involving socio-economic sectors and sea users in the management of these spaces.
COLLABORATION OF THE COASTAL AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES AND FRANCE AND PORTUGAL
Another relevant aspect of the project is that it has the collaboration and participation of four other Ministries (of Development, Interior, Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and Defence), of all the coastal autonomous communities and cities and of the neighbouring countries (Portugal and France) to achieve its objectives. Likewise, throughout the project, different formulas will be implemented to involve many other actors in achieving the challenges of this ambitious initiative.
