Project background
The Mediterranean: an underprotected sea
The Mediterranean Sea hosts 11 per cent of the world’s marine species on a body of water that represents only 1 per cent of the world’s oceans. However, this rich biodiversity is under threat from habitat loss, overfishing, pollution and climate change. Having a regional marine conservation strategy – one in which MPAs play a central role – is vital.
It is those MPAs with strong protection status (high or full protection) that bring the most benefits to the fishing or tourism sectors, for example, in terms of biodiversity protection and socio-economic gains.
Currently, strongly protected areas account for 0.2 per cent of the Mediterranean Sea surface, even though international targets call for coverage of 10 to 30 per cent.
