The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) will promote the restoration of marine habitats and species with more than €26 million thanks to funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (RTRP).
The commitment to the recovery of degraded ecosystems is included as one of the priority objectives of the RTRP. To this end, ecological restoration is being strengthened, guaranteeing a sustainable use of natural resources and the preservation and improvement of their ecosystem services.
These actions include the restoration of colonies of coastal gorgonians, deep and deep soft corals, as well as seagrass meadows, mainly Posidonia oceanica. The declining populations of marine macrophytes, which form forests and seagrass meadows in the Spanish Atlantic, will also be strengthened and coral habitats will be created and restored through 3D printing, among other actions.
This project also meets European and national commitments on biodiversity recovery, ensuring the maintenance or restoration of the favourable conservation status of species and habitats of community interest, guaranteeing effective management and improving the surveillance and monitoring of marine biodiversity.
Along these lines, the National Strategy for Green Infrastructure and Ecological Connectivity and Restoration also contributes to the objective of restoring damaged ecosystems and consolidating a network of connected natural and semi-natural terrestrial and marine areas in Spain by 2050.
Among MITECO’s mechanisms to work on marine restoration are also projects financed with other funds, such as the LIFE program.
This is the case of LIFE ECOREST, which seeks to restore nearly 30,000 hectares of deep marine habitats in Catalonia, in an area of high ecological value along the coast of Barcelona and Girona, with the active participation of the fishing sector, a fundamental pillar of the project.
PRESENTATION OF THE LIFE ECOREST PROJECT
Precisely today, a presentation ceremony was held for this initiative of which the MITECO Biodiversity Foundation is a partner and which, in addition to showing in detail the benefits of marine restoration, has served to make visible a pioneering initiative that contributes to the regeneration of marine habitats and species of our natural heritage.
The meeting was inaugurated by the Director General of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification of MITECO, María Jesús Rodríguez de Sancho, who reaffirmed Spain’s commitment to advancing in the conservation and recovery of marine ecosystems. Rodríguez de Sancho highlighted the role of restoration as “an effective instrument to reverse the degradation of ecosystems, mitigate and promote adaptation to climate change and protect biodiversity for the benefit of people, the climate and the planet”.
In relation to LIFE ECOREST, Rodríguez de Sancho highlighted as one of its main values the importance of sectoral cooperation, “essential to advance in the protection of our seas and our resources”.
Thus, the event itself reflected the collaboration between institutions and agents involved with the participation in the inaugural block of the Director General of Sustainable Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Isabel Artime; and the Deputy Director General of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Itziar Segarra.
Representatives of the various partners of the project also participated in this meeting, showing the benefits of marine restoration and the importance of marine reserves to regenerate habitats and key species such as corals and gorgonians, which act as architects of the seabed.
Specifically, Josep-Maria Gili, professor at the Institut de Ciències del Mar del CSIC (ICM-CSIC), the entity that coordinates the project; Cristina Linares, professor of ecology at the University of Barcelona; Laura Recasens, researcher in the Department of Marine Resources of the ICM-CSIC; Antoni Abad, president of the Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds of Girona; and José Luis García, head of the marine programme at WWF Spain.
AREA OF ACTION
In the project area, along the Barcelona and Girona coastline, it is estimated that more than 90% of the seabed between 50 and 800 meters deep shows signs of degradation, which hinders the regeneration of natural resources. This area is considered a point of great ecological importance due to the high concentration of endangered, threatened or vulnerable species, including corals and gorgonians. Therefore, until 2026, the program of actions of the LIFE ECOREST project will serve to try to improve the conservation status of deep-sea habitats and demonstrate the effectiveness of participatory management of the fishing sector.
This initiative, coordinated by the ICM-CSIC, has as partners the Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds of Girona, the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the University of Barcelona and WWF Spain, as well as the financial contribution of the LIFE Program of the European Union.
