Less than 2% of EU marine areas attain protection within five years of the set 30% target
Title: Europe's Oceans in Peril: WWF Sounds the Alarm
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has dropped a bombshell with its latest report, 'Protect and Restore Our Seas: Europe's Challenge to Meet 2030 Goals'.According to the WWF, the Member States of the European Union are "stumbling" in their race towards marine protection, as only 2.04% of EU seas are currently covered by Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) with management plans. These sites remain untouched, mere pieces of paper, while harmful activities continue unabated.
As the European Commission prepares to launch the European Ocean Pact and the United Nations Ocean Conference looms, the WWF warns that the European Union needs to act quickly to designate, manage, and restore marine ecosystems. The key issue here isn't simply the lack of MPAs, but the absence of clear objectives, conservation measures, or restoration actions in the plans that have been put in place.
The report pinpoints difficulties at the level of harmonization as the main reason why Portugal's Azores and Madeira aren't fully represented in the analysis. The WWF underscores the pressing issue of ecological risks, backed by data from the European Environment Agency indicating that more than 90% of EU marine areas are under threat from human activities.
Jacob Armstrong, oceans manager at the WWF European Policy Office, downplays the legal framework that exists, highlighting the weak implementation as the primary concern. "Governments have to turn words into action in marine protection, or risk turning these places into mere dots on a map."
The report reveals that just 11.39% of Europe's marine area has been designated as MPA, with the highest coverage in the Mediterranean (17.97%), followed by the Baltic (17.21%) and the Black Sea (14.07%). The lowest coverage is in the Northeast Atlantic (8.04%).
Variations in the proportion of MPAs with management plans are stark, with Belgium leading the pack at 35.04%, Germany at 16.89%, France at 3.14%, and Spain at 0.85%. Countries like Greece, Croatia, and Ireland, among others, report 0%. The study also indicates inconsistencies, delays, and incompleteness in the data provided.
If all Portuguese marine areas recognized in national and international databases had been considered, the national coverage would have been "closer to the official estimate of 4.5%", according to the WWF. However, most of these newly designated areas still lack management plans.
Rita Sá, coordinator of Oceans and Fisheries at WWF Portugal, emphasizes the importance of investing in the designation of adequate and well-managed Marine Protected Areas, forming a coherent ecological network, to ensure a healthy ocean and a sustainable future for coastal communities.
The WWF, with over five million supporters and an active network in over 100 countries, calls on the European Commission and member states to "intensify efforts to protect and restore marine biodiversity in all EU seas". Recommendations include strict monitoring of all MPAs, phasing out harmful fishing practices, and cooperating across national maritime borders.
[1] High Seas Treaty[2] Preservation of Marine Life[3] EU Biodiversity Targets[4] NGO Ocean Conservation Priorities
- The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) advocates for the European Union to intensify efforts in environmental-science, specifically climate-change mitigation, to protect and restore marine ecosystems in line with scientific research on preservation of marine life.
- In the face of escalating ecological risks from human activities, the WWF emphasizes the importance of investing in the science of health-and-wellness, particularly in the field of marine-and-oceanic wellbeing, by increasing the designation, management, and restoration of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) across all European seas.
