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EU reaches the Aichi target of protecting ten percent of Europe's seas

News Published 25 Oct 2018 Last modified 10 Dec 2019

1 min read

Photo: © Stefan Kunze on Unsplash

A total of 10.8 % of the surface of Europe’s seas was designated as marine protected areas by the end of 2016, according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) assessment, published today. This means the EU has reached the global Aichi target of protecting at least 10 % of coastal and marine areas by 2020. However, the EEA analysis also shows that the protected area networks are skewed towards coastal waters and do not sufficiently cover the deep sea.