Madeira, Portugal, May 26, 2026 (Lusa) - Madeira’s Regional Secretariat for the Environment said on Tuesday that the creation of the D. Carlos Marine Nature can proceed only if Madeira’s fishing industry is fully safeguarded.
“There will only be a marine reserve if the continuity of regional fishing is fully guaranteed."
"This has been, is, and will always be the position of the government,” the department said.
“The protection of the ocean cannot be carried out to the detriment of Madeiran fishermen, nor at the expense of the traditional activities that sustain families, communities and the regional blue economy,” it added.
“The government offers a firm guarantee that traditional fishing in Madeira will continue to be safeguarded within the future Marine Protected Area. This is an essential, non-negotiable condition that applies across the entire process of creating the reserve,” it said.
It also reinforced that without such a guarantee, Madeira would not be in a position to support the process, reiterating that ocean conservation and the defence of fishers were two priorities that had to go hand in hand.
The creation of the D. Carlos Marine Nature Reserve, set to become the largest marine protected area in Portugal, was open to public consultation from 20 January to 6 March.
On 13 March, the National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development published its opinion, recommending that the government review the draft legislation to create the D. Carlos Marine Nature Reserve, as it does not meet conservation objectives and permits fishing techniques incompatible with conservation.
The council considered that the current wording “does not ensure the conservation objectives set out, nor does it adequately incorporate the scientific evidence regarding the importance of this area for nature conservation”.
The environment and energy, and the agriculture and maritime affairs ministries revealed in January that the future D. Carlos Marine Nature Reserve covers an area of 173,000 square kilometres and would enable Portugal to reach 25% of the marine area protected under national sovereignty.
At the time, it was also announced that the protection regime safeguards fisheries using artisanal, selective, and environmentally low-impact fishing gear.
The protection of 30% of the ocean (and a similar proportion on land) is set out in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022 in Canada under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
It is also set out in the European Union’s Biodiversity Strategy.
TFS/MYAL // ADB.
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