Contribution of Mission’s projects to the indicator

MPAs play a key role in conserving coastal and marine ecosystems and provide significant economic and societal benefits and support local livelihoods. To protect the EU’s seas, the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 set the target that, by 2030, at least 30% of the sea area should be legally protected. 

Between 2021 and 2023, the Mission Oceans and Water committed about 70 million Euros in funding to eight projects to address challenges linked to management and establishment of marine protected areas. An overview of these projects is provided in the infographics below, including a link to projects’ sites.

EU Mission’s projects contributing to this indicator:

A-AAGORA

BioProtect

BLUCONNECT

Blue4All

EFFECTIVE

OceanCitizen

PHAROS

PROTECT BALTIC

These projects plan to explore innovative solutions to some of the most pressing challenges faced by Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), including improvement of management practices, the consolidation of the network, and its connectivity to meet targets set by EU policies. Strictly protected areas will not be included in the following assessment, but will instead be covered in a dedicated indicator.

MPAs management 

Ensuring more effective management of individual MPAs and their networks should become a major focus in the coming years, as the designation of new MPAs alone will not guarantee the conservation of the EU’s marine ecosystems (Marine protected areas - European Environment Agency (EEA)). The Mission helps create a coherent, representative and adequate network of MPAs to ensure good management practices and coordination across marine regions. Projects will investigate improvement of practices (ecological and governance) of marine conservation in selected Living Labs including local MPAs, national MPA network processes, regional networks of MPAs. Best practices will then be made available to all MPAs, some through online digital tools created by projects.

Among the tested management practices, adaptive management is a promising solution that involves continuous assessment, adjustments, and flexibility in response to changing environmental conditions and new information. Several projects, such as A-AAgora, EFFECTIVE, and PHAROS, plan to test management solutions that consider the entire ecosystem, including ecological, social, and economic factors, when making management decisions. These solutions will then be made available to relevant organizations authorities to be implemented across MPA and MPAs’ networks s.

To secure long-term and sustainable management of MPAs, a key focus is engaging with stakeholders as local communities, fishers, and authorities, to promote co-management and co-ownership. This is highlighted by some of the activities conducted by BioProtect, BLUE4ALL, and BLUE CONNECT. Some projects such as BLUE CONNECT and PHAROS also plan to explore innovative financial models and funding mechanisms, such as community-based financing and private funding options.

Consolidation and expansion of the MPAs’ network 

Over the last decade, the total area covered by MPAs in the EU has increased substantially — from 5.9% in 2012 to 12.3% in 2022. Although this trend is positive, the area protected will need to expand at a significantly faster rate than it has in the last decade if the EU is to meet the 30% biodiversity strategy target by 2030 (Marine protected areas in Europe's seas | European Environment Agency's home page).

Projects funded by the Mission are planning to conduct activities that will help consolidate the network of existing MPAs by engaging with more than 50 MPAs and MPA networks. Activities will be tested and demonstration at more than 60 Mission demo sites across 20 countries, including Living Labs and information sites (see Mission demo sites map).

After completion, the Mission’s projects commit to identify more than 50 new sites which are suitable to be designated as marine protected areas. The size of these sites has not been disclosed by projects at this time. It is important to highlight that while the Mission’s projects can help identify suitable areas, the registration of these areas as MPAs will most likely take place after the end of these projects.

Connectivity 

The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and the Bird and Habitats Directive highlight the importance of building a coherent, representative and adequate trans-European network of protected areas through improving their connectivity. Thus, EEA identified the need to ensure sound scientific analysis when designating new MPAs (ETC/ICM Report 3/2020: Spatial Analysis of Marine Protected Area Networks in Europe’s Seas III — Eionet Portal).

Several projects funded by the Missing, including BLUE4ALL, PHAROS, OceanCitizen, BLUE CONNECT, EFFECTIVE, and BioProtect, have committed to developing tools and modelling frameworks to assess and explicitly consider the spatial interdependence of marine ecosystems. For example, the assessment conducted by BioProtect is expected to include the identification and mapping of ecological corridors. Engagement of local communities and stakeholders shall ensure that their knowledge and needs are involved as part of the framework. These tools will enable MPA managers to better understand and manage connectivity by taking into consideration landscape features (such as migratory corridors and sanctuaries) to ensure connectivity between existing and new MPAs. Enhancements in connectivity are expected to benefit MPAs’ biodiversity and resilience.