LISBON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Portugal’s government has approved the creation of a new 173,000-square-kilometre (66,800-square-mile) marine reserve in the Atlantic, marking a major step towards its target of protecting 30% of its maritime territory by 2028.
• In a statement late on Thursday, the government said the reserve would protect “unique deep-sea habitats, including cold-water corals, coral gardens, sponges and threatened species”
• The new reserve, announced during the COP31 climate summit in Turkey, will raise the share of Portuguese waters under protection to 25% from around 19%
• It covers the Madeira-Tore seamount complex, between Madeira and mainland Portugal, and the 22,900-square-kilometre Gorringe Ridge, some 200 km (124 miles) off the country’s southern coast, home to Western Europe’s tallest underwater mountain
• The marine protected area will “balance biodiversity conservation with sustainable traditional fishing”, according to the government
• In 2024, Portugal created the North Atlantic’s largest network of marine protected areas around the Azores archipelago covering 287,000 sq km
• Portugal is working towards the United Nations goal of protecting at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a global agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Xevi Fontdegloria)
