30% of the Azores sea will be protected, but there are setbacks in Madeira and promises not fulfilled on the Mainland

There is still a lot of sea to safeguard until Portugal meets the goal of having 30% of its marine areas with protected status in 2030 and thus fulfills the international commitments assumed in the Kunming-Montreal Agreement, in focus at the Biodiversity Conference taking place in Colombia.

Currently, 4.5% of the Portuguese sea is occupied by marine protected areas (MPA) and half of these are in the Azores sea. This national percentage will jump to 17% with the expansion of the Azorean Ocean Marine Parkrecently approved by the Regional Government and which allows for the largest protection network in the North Atlantic. “Protecting 30% of the Azores sea corresponds to protecting 16-17% of the National Sea”, highlighted the Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, in an interview with Expresso.