Low levels protection EU MPA’s Works Against 2030 Biodiversity Target – Study
By FEMI AKINOLA
The European Union ( EU) aims to protect 30% of its seas by 2030, with 10% ‘strictly’ protected from damaging activities.
However, researchers said in a paper published in the One Earth Journal that the low levels of protection in over 80% of EU Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have left the continent far from reaching its 2030 biodiversity targets, which are designed to reduce the risk of species extinction.
According to the researchers, most of Europe’s MPAs, set up to safeguard species and habitats, will not meet conservation targets because they provide only “marginal” protection against industrial activities such as dredging, mining, and bottom trawling.
The paper’s lead author, Juliette Aminian—Biquet, a researcher at the University of Algarve, Portugal’s Centre for Marine Sciences, said, ”It is the first assessment of where we are in terms of protection. This shows that we are at the beginning of protecting our oceans.”
The researchers found that the low levels of protection in most MPAs result from the ”flexible” nature of EU directives. ”For MPAs to provide the expected social and ecological benefits, their role in regulating human activities to limit their negative impacts should be questioned,” the authors said.
”Getting the EU to do anything on this topic is extremely difficult, as regulation must be largely binding. It will be up to individual states or regional authorities to take action to meet these targets,” says Aminian-Biquet.
The paper concluded that reaching the EU’s 10% strict protection target will require ‘radical changes’ to the regulation of activities in its marine sanctuaries. The paper reported that Germany had the highest coverage of marine sanctuaries in the EU (45% of national waters), with France and Belgium not far behind.
The report stated that Slovenia is the European country that performs best at keeping destructive activities at bay in its protected areas. It noted that this feat was accomplished because Slovenia has relatively few MPAs in its waters compared to other countries on the continent.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the European Commission said, ” The commission takes note of the very recent publication and its key summary findings. ” The commission has called on member states to manage all MPAs in line with relevant directives and EU commitments to protect 30% of marine and coastal areas by 2030.
The commission added that the 2023 EU marine action plan recommended member states phase out bottom trawling in MPAs by 2030.
But the phase out was rejected by European Parliament in January and most EU states have not yet set out measures on bottom trawling, with the exception of a country like Greece, which became a first country to ban bottom trawling in MPAs earlier this year.