Fishing intensity in Mediterranean Natura 2000: How monitoring can support management & conservation

The increasing availability of detailed fisheries data, including logbooks and monitoring systems, enables the analysis of the relationships between fishing activities, their intensity and their potential environmental impacts at an unprecedented level of detail. In particular, from tracking data of fishing vessels, it is possible to derive information about the behavior of coastal fisheries and … Read more

EU gets tough on countries with poor marine protection

Offshore waters are the most neglected Yesterday, the European Commission ordered 12 EU countries to improve marine protection as they are not meeting their legal targets to complete the Natura 2000 network. The countries came under fire at a meeting which gathered EU officials, national government representatives, scientific experts and NGOs in Malta to discuss … Read more

Environmental NGOs urgently call for better protection of Europe’s oceans

98% of offshore waters remain unprotected under Natura 2000, Europe’s key conservation network. St. Julian’s, Malta. Environmental NGOs Oceana, Seas At Risk, and WWF urge the European Commission to be rigorous in its assessment of EU Member States’ performance on protecting their oceans, and on Member States to fulfil their obligations to protect those areas … Read more

Natura 2000 Network

These protected areas constitute the Natura 2000 Network. In the first stage, Member States nominate protection areas, known as Sites of Community Importance (SCIs), which are thus subject to a preventive protection regime. Afterwards, in a maximum period of 6 years, the corresponding management plans must be drawn up and, once they are ready, the … Read more

Protecting hidden richness of Lebanon

Can a place 3,000 feet deep, dark and cold be a hot spot of biodiversity? Yes, it can! In fact, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has included four such sites in their Lebanon’s marine protected area strategy , and the reason why we’re talking about them here is because it’s a … Read more

A very special place between Europe and Africa

Located between Spain, Morocco and Algeria, the Alboran Sea is to the very West of the Western Mediterranean. If the Strait of Gibraltar can be called the gate to the Med, then the Alboran Sea is a busy hall where thousands of ships and migrating cetaceans go to and fro. Such hectic activity in a … Read more

10 days to failure in the Med

It’s not looking good for habitat and species protection in the Mediterranean, a big deadline is coming up and EU Member States from the region are failing to meet their obligations, despite the looming threat of financial penalties. But let me rewind a bit, to give you a bit of background. The Habitats Directive is … Read more

Oil Exploration and Marine Protected Areas in the Canaries: Hardly Compatible

The Habitats Directive is the most important EU environmental legislation, requiring EU Member States to protect specific habitat types by incorporating them into a network of protected areas (both on land and at sea) called Natura 2000. But it’s not looking like every country is going to meet their requirements. In the Canary Islands for … Read more