Marine protected Areas In the Atlantic arc

The project aimed to: 1) share experience on how to draw up management plans for activities which take place in existing marine protected areas (MPAs) and thus fulfill the nature conservation objectives that justified their designation; 2) define and implement joint methodology to identify the marine areas, both inshore and offshore, whose habitats and/or species justify special protection or management.

Project Achievements: 

• MAIA portal, which combines innovative tools, such as the GIS viewer and the collaborative section, with an editorial website. And all three components are underpinned by a shared database.

• A multi-lingual site for the North-East Atlantic MPA network Open to the general public and published in four languages (English, French, Spanish and Portuguese), the editorial website of the European cooperation project MAIA - Marine Protected Areas in the Atlantic arc – features everything going on in the network: technical workshops, publications, news about MPA managers from the four partner countries and European information. The site also includes a dynamic map tool, the GIS viewer, which can be used to submit geographical or attribute queries and to poll objects, etc. A summary datasheet presents each marine protected area with standard information (perimeter, status, etc.) common to national, European (CDDA) and global (WCMC-WDPA) databases, completed by qualitative data about site management. Both user-friendly and flexible, this tool offers a geographic overview of MPAs in the Atlantic arc. Information for the database is currently being compiled and will eventually be used to regularly assess the network of marine protected areas in the North-East Atlantic.

• A discussion room for MPA stakeholders The collaborative space is open to Atlantic arc MPA managers, project partners and other members invited by the MAIA coordination team. Here they have access to working documents and the calendar; they can also update their site’s datasheet and add input to the document database. The MAIA portal is a shared information site. It is a real tool in MPA network coordination and will constitute the reference database for MPAs in the Atlantic arc.

Project partners

AGENCE DES AIRES MARINES PROTEGEES [France]

ASSOCIATION DU GRAND LITTORAL ATLANTIQUE - AGLIA [France]

COMITE NATIONAL DES PECHES MARITIMES ET DES ELEVAGES MARINS - CNPMEM [France]

JOINT NATURE CONSERVATION COMMITTEE - JNCC [UK]

NATURAL ENGLAND - NE [UK]

SOUTH WEST FOOD AND DRINK - SWFD [UK]

XUNTA DE GALICIA [Spain]

UNIVERSIDAD DA CORUNA [Spain]

INSTITUDO DA CONSERCACAO DA NATUREZA E DA BIODIVERSIDADE - ICNB [Portugal]

INSTITUDO NATIONAL DOS RECURSOS BIOLOGICOS I.P. - INRB I.P. / IPIMAR - [Portugal]