EIT Food Activities

MPA Europe is a project co-funded by the European Union (EU) that will map a network of locations representative of biodiversity in European seas (Atlantic Exclusive Economic Zones of the EU and its neighbours, and all the Mediterranean, Baltic, and Black seas).

This network will indicate where to prioritise placement of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) for biodiversity protection and how Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) can maximise blue carbon benefits. By using a holistic set of biodiversity measures, from species to ecosystems (including habitats), and environmental data including carbon storage, water currents, and climate change velocity models, it will be possible to quantify and map both the present and future connectivity within the proposed MPA network. The multiple scenarios provided will support wider and improved MSP by policy makers, industry, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The inter-disciplinary approach of MPA Europe is supported by a diversity of partners. These include Nord University (Norway), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (Belgium), the Scottish Association for Marine Science (Scotland, UK), the Centre of Marine Sciences (Portugal), the Ocean University of China (China), Science Crunchers (Portugal), the University of the Ryukyus (Japan), Aarhus University (Denmark), and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (England, UK). The partners include experts in marine biology, taxonomy, ecology, oceanography, biogeochemistry, and biogeography, MPA network design, benthic habitat mapping, carbon dynamics, species distribution, climate modelling, and MSP compose the MPA Europe team.