Battle to protect Spain’s
10,000 endangered marine
species
Agenda 21
Update
Christine
Betterton Jones
Spain is home to the largest
number of marine fauna species
in the European Union – a total of
10,000 in 900 types of habitat –
but is also the bloc’s fifth-largest
producer of plastic with an average
of 3.2 items of rubbish, of which
2.3 are plastic, lounging in every
square metre of beach.
This spring, the previous Spanish
government, led by the PP, set up
the Life IP Intermares plan as part
of the Biodiversity Foundation
within the ministry for the
environment, agriculture, food
and fishing – the largest and most
ambitious marine conservation
project in Europe, financed out
of various EU funds totalling
€50 million to care for the entire
network of protected parts of the
continent’s seas.