An agreement to establish a large marine protected area in the Mediterranean is in the pipeline between Italy, France, Spain, and Cyprus to meet EU targets on the protection of the sea and biodiversity, Italy’s environment minister said on Thursday.
The EU countries should establish a marine protected area by 2030 to protect the sea and marine fauna as part of the biodiversity strategy adopted by the EU. It is a comprehensive long-term plan that aims to preserve nature and reverse the degradation of ecosystems and is a central element of the European Green Deal.
“An agreement is being finalised with France, Spain and Cyprus for a large protected area in the extra-territorial waters of the Mediterranean, which is a great contribution to the 30×30 goal”, said the Italian Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin on Thursday.
The 30 by 30 target was set last December by the Cop15 on biodiversity in Montreal and envisages making 30% of land and seas protected areas by 2030. Although this target is part of the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy introduced by the EU, governments have so far done little.
During the conference ‘Valore Natura. The role of protected areas for the protection and enhancement of Italy’ organised by Marevivo and WWF Italy in Rome, the minister said that a commission would be set up at the national level to work on a complete revision of the Environment Code.
“Parliament has realised the need to include environmental protection in the Constitution (…) There are new sensitivities. Things are changing, and in light of this we have to rewrite the whole path,” the minister stressed.
In 2022, Italy amended Articles 9 and 41 of its Constitution to include the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems among its general principles. Today there are 29 marine protected areas and two underwater parks.
The objective of the reform will be to redesign the regulations governing the park system and the constituent system of marine areas “through the most open confrontation possible”. It will move towards a ‘regulatory reform’ that will also be accompanied by a simplification of “bureaucratic procedures to make them less cumbersome.”
The minister’s intervention comes after requests from environmental associations that pointed out the urgent need to limit the phenomena of pollution and over-fishing.
In view of the upcoming 2030 deadline, it will be difficult to meet the targets at this rate.
“It is essential to protect our nature, our sea and our well-being. We need an extraordinary commitment, which citizens are asking for and which must see the institutions play a leading role,” emphasised WWF Italy President Luciano Di Tizio.
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)
