Map of the week - Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in European Waters
Are you a follower of the FIFA World Cup? Of course you are!
We don't know yet who will win this World Cup but did you know that Croatia is already ahead of France in regard to the percentage of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) along its coasts?
That’s right, we already have a winner on nature conservation! 9.3 % of Croatia’s coasts are MPAs meaning that those areas of marine landscape are protected by local, state, territorial, native, regional, national, or international authorities to support the long-term conservation of the marine environment by restricting the impact of some human activities (e.g. restrict fishing, oil and gas mining and/or tourism) within that area. This is important for European countries because MPAs can help sustain local economies by supporting fisheries and tourism.
Nonetheless it is not too late for France, even though it has only an area of 7.3% of its coasts protected. France can still match Croatia in the coming years if it increases its commitment with Ocean sustainability.
In fact, many other European countries could learn from the UK, the real winner on MPAs, as it has one of the highest percentages of MPAs with 30.2% of marine protected areas along its coasts.
Check the map to see how your country is doing in regard of protecting the marine environment!
See the map:
The data displayed in this map has been provided by Eurostat:
http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=env_bio1&lang=en