Technical report : Current conditions and compatibility of maritime uses in the western Mediterranean

Abstract

Following a regional and integrated approach, this report will assess the current conditions and compatibilities of maritime uses and future scenarios for maritime/marine spatial planning and blue growth in the context of the Western Mediterranean Sea basin. It is worth noting that this report does not intend to build a marine spatial plan but rather provide tools, products and recommendations. Similarly, the purpose of this report is not to make any legal statement, either from any country or from the IOC-UNESCO regarding administrative boundaries or any other legal issues related to each country’s competency. Therefore, the countries’ exclusive economic zone delimitation was omitted in order to keep the regional approach. The MSPglobal West Mediterranean pilot project area is bordered by seven countries: Algeria, France, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia. It covers the Western Mediterranean Sea basin stretching east from the limit of the economic exclusive zone (EEZ) of Italy, Malta and Tunisia to the Strait of Gibraltar in the West. The case study’s boundaries were defined taking into consideration the regional character of the initiative. Although there are seven different countries involved in the pilot project, the marine area is considered as a whole to facilitate the regional approach. According to (Nylén et al., 2019), if no precise area is dictated, it is preferable to identify borders that conform to established administrative borders. Therefore, considering the focus area (Western Mediterranean) and the countries involved, already defined administrative boundaries were used to draw the pilot project area. The western limit was defined considering administrative areas established by Spain in the framework of its transposition of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The limit of the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea (Ley 41/2010, de 29 de diciembre de protección del medio marino) in its western side was projected across the strait until the coast of Morocco. On the other hand, its eastern limit was drawn following the approximate EEZs of Italy, Malta and Tunisia as represented in the dataset of Maritime Boundaries version 10 of marineregions.org. Regarding the definition of the inland boundary, past regional initiatives were consulted (e.g. SIMWESTMED). How far inland the marine spatial planning analysis goes is always complex to determine, however, it mainly depends on the context, the scale and the desired outputs. The sea basin encompasses diverse coastal and marine ecosystems that support the biodiversity and provide numerous good and services to the coastal communities, including coastal plains, wetlands, brackish water lagoons, estuaries or transitional areas, seagrass meadows, coralligenous communities and mäerl beds, frontal systems and upwelling, seamounts and pelagic systems (Plan Bleu, 2014). By hosting 87% of the Mediterranean’s well-documented forms of life, the Western part of the Mediterranean Sea basin presents the highest rates of endemism (UNEP/MAP - CP/RAC, 2013). However, today the Western Mediterranean, as well as the whole sea basin, are under intense pressures deriving from increasing coastal urban development and intensive human activities such as fisheries, extraction of natural resources, maritime traffic and pollution (Plan Bleu, 2014).