Mediterranean Protected Areas Network

Marine Protected Area Network | MPA Network

European Network of protection areas

Circumpolar Protected Areas Network

16. Calls for a minimum objective of 10 % surface coverage by 2020 of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas by marine protected areas, in accordance with relevant international commitments and in support of achieving good environmental status in the Union’s marine environment by 2020, in accordance with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive; calls for the establishment of a network of protected marine, coastal and inland areas and parks; encourages the Member States involved in the strategy to improve the environmental quality by carrying out projects seeking to cut chemical, physical and microbiological pollution by optimising the sustainabi ...[+++]lity of maritime traffic, protecting biodiversity and investing in protected marine areas; calls, in this connection, on the Member States involved to promote integrated systems for environmental observation and monitoring of protected marine areas and to step up cooperation between regional environmental monitoring centres;

Based on the work done by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on assessing the network of European MPAs, the report looks at the progress made on the establishment of marine protected areas by Member States (section 2) before examining the coherence and representativity of MPA networks, as required by Article 13(4) (section 3).

Habitats and Birds Directives: foreseedesignation of protected areas which form a coherent European ecological network (Natura 2000 network) and are subject to strong protection and management requirements in order to achieve Favourable Conservation Status for the EU's most vulnerable habitats and species.

OSPAR, HELCOM and the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA) established under the Barcelona Convention together with MedPAN in the Mediterranean have all assessed MPA network coherence.