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Fair Seas Estimates Cost of Ireland Fulfilling Marine Protected Areas 2030 Target at 55 Million Euro

29th June 2023
Presenting the ‘Sustainably Financing Ireland's Marine Protected Area Network’ report to Minister for Finance Michael McGrath is Fair Seas campaign manager Aoife O’Mahony
Presenting the ‘Sustainably Financing Ireland's Marine Protected Area Network’ report to Minister for Finance Michael McGrath is Fair Seas campaign manager Aoife O’Mahony Credit: Colm Lougheed

Ireland will need to spend about €55 million between 2024 and 2030 to reach its targets of protecting 30% of seas and oceans, according to the Fair Seas coalition.

A report published by Fair Seas, a coalition of environmental non-governmental organisations and networks, estimates that of the €55 million needed to fund designation and management of marine protected areas (MPAs), approximately €7 million would be required over the next 12 months.

This latter sum would allow Ireland to reach the target of fully protecting 10% of ocean and seas, it says.

The current figure is just 8.3% since the designation of two recent additional special areas of conservation.

The Fair Seas report entitled Sustainably Financing Ireland's Marine Protected Area Network is the first of its kind, it says.

It calculates that a spend of €54.9 million comprises a total spend of €12.4 million to establish the full 30% MPA network and €42.5 million to continuously manage the growing network between 2024 and 2030.

It calculates that to achieve 10% of EEZ protection in 2024, €7.0 million is needed to cover upfront establishment and management costs in 2024.

It says that once a “30x30 network” is implemented, it is estimated that an annual average of €9.6 million will need to be spent on annual management costs for Ireland to maintain its 30% of EEZ network beyond 2030.

“ Between 2024 and 2030, the amount needing to be spent on establishment and management of MPAs varies as the MPA network grows from the current 8.3% of EEZ to the target 30% of EEZ in 2030

Fair Seas says that its report shows how full protection of the marine ecosystem would be cheaper, and more effective, than partial protection.

The report sets out operating expenditure including staff salaries, scientific studies, boat fuel and maintenance, as well as capital expenditure like boat and car purchases, demarcation buoys, scuba diving equipment and surveillance equipment such as radar and drones.

The report also details possible next steps for the Government and assesses potential sources of funding relevant to Ireland. The options range from EU grants and philanthropic donations to revenue-generating mechanisms and potential reallocations of funding.

Fair Seas says the report has been reviewed by international experts, including Valerie Hickey, Global Director for Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy at the World Bank; Dr Rashid Sumaila, Professor of Ocean and Fisheries Economics at the University of British Columbia; and Dr Sarah Ryan Enright, Ocean Law and Governance Researcher, Charles Darwin Foundation. The report is supported by Blue Nature Alliance and its partners.

The Fair Seas campaign is funded by Oceans 5, Becht Foundation, the Blue Nature Alliance and the Wyss Foundation.

The full report is here

Published in Marine Planning
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Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) - FAQS

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are geographically defined maritime areas where human activities are managed to protect important natural or cultural resources. In addition to conserving marine species and habitats, MPAs can support maritime economic activity and reduce the effects of climate change and ocean acidification.

MPAs can be found across a range of marine habitats, from the open ocean to coastal areas, intertidal zones, bays and estuaries. Marine protected areas are defined areas where human activities are managed to protect important natural or cultural resources.

The world's first MPA is said to have been the Fort Jefferson National Monument in Florida, North America, which covered 18,850 hectares of sea and 35 hectares of coastal land. This location was designated in 1935, but the main drive for MPAs came much later. The current global movement can be traced to the first World Congress on National Parks in 1962, and initiation in 1976 of a process to deliver exclusive rights to sovereign states over waters up to 200 nautical miles out then began to provide new focus

The Rio ‘Earth Summit’ on climate change in 1992 saw a global MPA area target of 10% by the 2010 deadline. When this was not met, an “Aichi target 11” was set requiring 10% coverage by 2020. There has been repeated efforts since then to tighten up MPA requirements.

Marae Moana is a multiple-use marine protected area created on July 13th 2017 by the government of the Cook islands in the south Pacific, north- east of New Zealand. The area extends across over 1.9 million square kilometres. However, In September 2019, Jacqueline Evans, a prominent marine biologist and Goldman environmental award winner who was openly critical of the government's plans for seabed mining, was replaced as director of the park by the Cook Islands prime minister’s office. The move attracted local media criticism, as Evans was responsible for developing the Marae Moana policy and the Marae Moana Act, She had worked on raising funding for the park, expanding policy and regulations and developing a plan that designates permitted areas for industrial activities.

Criteria for identifying and selecting MPAs depends on the overall objective or direction of the programme identified by the coastal state. For example, if the objective is to safeguard ecological habitats, the criteria will emphasise habitat diversity and the unique nature of the particular area.

Permanence of MPAs can vary internationally. Some are established under legislative action or under a different regulatory mechanism to exist permanently into the future. Others are intended to last only a few months or years.

Yes, Ireland has MPA cover in about 2.13 per cent of our waters. Although much of Ireland’s marine environment is regarded as in “generally good condition”, according to an expert group report for Government published in January 2021, it says that biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are of “wide concern due to increasing pressures such as overexploitation, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change”.

The Government has set a target of 30 per cent MPA coverage by 2030, and moves are already being made in that direction. However, environmentalists are dubious, pointing out that a previous target of ten per cent by 2020 was not met.

Conservation and sustainable management of the marine environment has been mandated by a number of international agreements and legal obligations, as an expert group report to government has pointed out. There are specific requirements for area-based protection in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the OSPAR Convention, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

Yes, the Marine Strategy Framework directive (2008/56/EC) required member states to put measures in place to achieve or maintain good environmental status in their waters by 2020. Under the directive a coherent and representative network of MPAs had to be created by 2016.

Ireland was about halfway up the EU table in designating protected areas under existing habitats and bird directives in a comparison published by the European Commission in 2009. However, the Fair Seas campaign, an environmental coalition formed in 2022, points out that Ireland is “lagging behind “ even our closest neighbours, such as Scotland which has 37 per cent. The Fair Seas campaign wants at least 10 per cent of Irish waters to be designated as “fully protected” by 2025, and “at least” 30 per cent by 2030.

Nearly a quarter of Britain’s territorial waters are covered by MPAs, set up to protect vital ecosystems and species. However, a conservation NGO, Oceana, said that analysis of fishing vessel tracking data published in The Guardian in October 2020 found that more than 97% of British MPAs created to safeguard ocean habitats, are being dredged and bottom trawled. 

There’s the rub. Currently, there is no definition of an MPA in Irish law, and environment protections under the Wildlife Acts only apply to the foreshore.

Current protection in marine areas beyond 12 nautical miles is limited to measures taken under the EU Birds and Habitats Directives or the OSPAR Convention. This means that habitats and species that are not listed in the EU Directives, but which may be locally, nationally or internationally important, cannot currently be afforded the necessary protection

Yes. In late March 2022, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said that the Government had begun developing “stand-alone legislation” to enable identification, designation and management of MPAs to meet Ireland’s national and international commitments.

Yes. Environmental groups are not happy, as they have pointed out that legislation on marine planning took precedence over legislation on MPAs, due to the push to develop offshore renewable energy.

No, but some activities may be banned or restricted. Extraction is the main activity affected as in oil and gas activities; mining; dumping; and bottom trawling

The Government’s expert group report noted that MPA designations are likely to have the greatest influence on the “capture fisheries, marine tourism and aquaculture sectors”. It said research suggests that the net impacts on fisheries could ultimately be either positive or negative and will depend on the type of fishery involved and a wide array of other factors.

The same report noted that marine tourism and recreation sector can substantially benefit from MPA designation. However, it said that the “magnitude of the benefits” will depend to a large extent on the location of the MPA sites within the network and the management measures put in place.

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