The ocean absorbs CO2 and excess heat from climate change; is home to millions of creatures–many of them yet undiscovered; and provides food and economic opportunity for people around the globe. Some 22 EU member states have promised to protect this critical part of the planet through Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). But according to a new report by World Wide Fund for Nature, Europe, most of these countries have done very little since announcing their intentions to protect the seas and only 2.04% of EU Seas are covered with functioning management plans.
With just five years left to meet the EU’s 2030 target of protecting at least 30% of its marine areas – including 10% under strict protection – a new WWF report, Protecting and restoring our seas: Europe’s challenge to meet the 2030 targets, reveals that Member States are dangerously off track. Frequently even those member states that have pledged to protect an area of the ocean took no recognizable action following the public pledge.
According to the report, 14 of 22 marine EU member states (MS) either have no management plans or very few in place for their designated MPAs. Three have reported no management plans for their MPAs, while only eight have plans covering over 10% of their marine area (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania and Sweden). Only Belgium exceeds 30% coverage of its marine area with MPA management plans, the report said, though its plans contain few significant conservation measures and are poorly implemented.
According to EU’s Reportnet, only eight member states have submitted biodiversity pledges on protected areas, of which three (Denmark, Germany, and Spain) have data available on their proposed MPAs. Those in Germany cover nearly 45% of its marine area while proposed MPAs among Denmark and Spain each cover less than 2% of their respective marine areas.
Only Denmark’s proposed MPAs include strict protection, which covers 4,171 km2 or 0.000004% of Denmark’s marine area
The report comes on the eve of the European Commission’s launch of its long-awaited Ocean Pact, and just days before the UN Ocean Conference in Nice.
“This is far from what is needed to protect ocean health and the millions of people whose lives and livelihoods depend on it,” said Jacob Armstrong, Ocean Manager at WWF European Policy Office. “As so often with ocean policy, the framework is there but implementation is weak or missing altogether. Governments must walk the walk on marine protection or risk leaving these sites as little more than dots on a map.”
Reporting across EU Member States is often inconsistent, delayed, and incomplete, WWF said, resulting in a fragmented view of marine protection efforts. This finding raises serious concerns about how we can design and implement effective marine policies in the absence of reliable data.
“The upcoming EU Ocean Pact must mark a watershed moment for ocean policy – where governments take concrete action to protect our ocean and the vital role it plays in our daily lives, from buffering the impacts of climate change to sustaining our food system. Ensuring that Marine Protected Areas are properly managed and enforced is the best way to make this happen,” said Armstrong.
What is needed the organization said, is to step up efforts to protect and restore marine biodiversity across all EU seas. That means to ensure that all Marine Protected Areas are strictly enforced and phase out harmful fishing practices that endanger sensitive species and habits. It means prioritizing ecological coherence–which essentially means treating the areas as an ecosystem where impacts to one part or species impact the whole. And it means managing them in a way that ensures coherence between ocean policies such as the Nature Restoration Law (NRL), Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and Marine Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD); and promote cooperation across national marine borders.
WWF urges the Commission to adopt EU-wide guidance on implementing the existing Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) criteria for identifying, recognizing and reporting Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) in Europe. These are areas not in MPAs but that have been designated for conservation. WWF also calls for the establishment of an EU-wide mechanism or platform to track and review national OECM pledges, ensuring the measures remain relevant and effective over time.
