Utility & Necessity of the Project
The project will contribute significantly to the fulfilment of Greece's obligations under European and national legislation and in particular by the following legislation:
Directive 2014/89 / EU of the European Parliament and the EU Council establishing a framework for Maritime Spatial Planning: Directive 2014/89 / EC provides that each Member State must establish and implement maritime spatial planning, taking into account economic social and environmental aspects for supporting and promoting sustainable development at sea by implementing an approach based on the ecosystem. The Project will provide a good basis for the national development plan in the Aegean, which is based on the Directive 2014/89 / EU should be established as soon as possible and at the latest by March 31, 2021 latest.
Directive 2008/56 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of the EU on the framework for Community action in the field of marine environmental policy (framework directive on marine strategy): After initial assessment of their marine waters, Member States should establish a comprehensive set of environmental targets and to decide on the programs of measures to achieve or maintain their marine waters good environmental status. As stipulated in Article 13 para. 4, those action programs "shall include spatial protection measures, contributing to coherent and representative networks of marine protected areas, adequately covering the diversity of ecosystems that make up these areas." This project will propose such a network of marine protected areas in the Aegean region, taking into account the objectives set (e.g. to implement the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive), combined with scientifically substantiated targets to ensure the sustainability of habitats and marine species in need of protection.
Directive 92/43 / EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora - Directive 2009/147 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conservation of wild birds: The two Directives define the creation of Natura 2000 is a European Ecological Network areas ("Special Protection Areas (SPAs)" for the birds and "Communal Land Importance (SCI)" as defined in the Habitats Directive), which host natural habitat types and habitats of species that are important at European level. This project will contribute significantly to Greece's obligations for these two directives, (1) will estimate the proportion of habitats and the spread range of species of Community interest (as defined in the Annexes of these guidelines) protected by the existing Natura 2000 network and (2) we will try to expand the existing network while proposing specific management measures to achieve the protection of important habitats and species according to specific business goals, such as refer to the instructions of the EU to assess the adequacy of the proposed areas Natura 2000 (European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity (ETC / BD), 2010).
Accordingly, the project will contribute significantly to the management of marine areas of the Aegean, in promoting sustainable development and sustainable use of marine and coastal resources, applying an ecosystem approach and aiming at the effective protection of marine biodiversity.