Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Monday that legal procedures for the creation of Greece’s first two marine parks will begin in June.
Speaking at the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, co-chaired by France and Costa Rica and running through June 13, Mitsotakis said the two marine parks will be established in the Ionian Sea and the Cyclades, emphasizing that the initiative is driven solely by the need to protect Greece’s rich marine ecosystems and biodiversity.
“I am happy to announce that Greece has taken a very important step in marine protection at the national level. Before the end of this month, we will start the legal process to create two new national marine parks, one in the Ionian Sea and another in the Southern Cyclades in the Aegean Sea, as a first phase with more to come,” Mitsotakis told the UNOC.
The Greek leader said “state-of-the-art monitoring” and “effective governance in collaboration with NGOs” would be implemented as part of the effort.
Participants at the ongoing UNOC include numerous world leaders and environmental policymakers.
Greece’s marine parks exceed protection targets
Greece’s marine park initiative forms part of its commitment to the global “30×30” target, aiming to protect 30 percent of the country’s territorial waters by 2030.
“Once these parks are finalized, we will significantly exceed the 30 percent threshold way before the 30×30 target of 2030. And, of course, we will ban bottom trawling in all our marine parks,” Mitsotakis stressed.
The goal aligns with an international agreement reached in 2022 by nearly 200 countries to protect 30 percent of the world’s oceans within the same timeframe.
Currently, only 2.7 percent of the world’s oceans are effectively protected from extractive activities, according to data from the Marine Conservation Institute.
“We are taking targeted measures for restoration, recovery and resilience of our marine species and biodiversity, with the aim to declare 10 percent of our territorial waters as no-take zones,” Mitsotakis said.
“In this, we support initiatives of local fishing communities, such as the one in the island of Amorgos, ‘Amorgorama,'” he added. There, specific no-fishing zones around the island have been established as safe havens for marine life.
France supports the territorial integrity of Greece and Cyprus
French President Emmanuel Macron drew a strong connection between marine conservation and national sovereignty during his remarks, calling on European Union partners to stand firm against threats to the territorial integrity of Greece and Cyprus.
“If we want to safeguard 30 percent of protected marine areas, if we want to combat illegal fishing, if we want to support our science, we must protect the Exclusive Economic Zones,” Macron said. “We must be unwavering when the territorial sovereignty of our allies is threatened—and I am referring to our Greek or Cypriot friends.”
Macron added that ocean protection must be integrated into broader European security and defense strategies. “In the efforts for security and defense made by all Europeans, with the support of the European Commission, the agreement on the oceans should be included,” he maintained.
Related: Turkey May Create Its Own Marine Parks Like Greece
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