The Government will move ahead with the structuring of the Azores Marine Park “in order to ensure the protection and proper management of marine areas protected for environmental purposes, which are located in the Azores sea and managed by the self-government bodies of the Region.”

The announcement was made by the Regional Secretary of the Presidency on Wednesday when he presented the press release of the last meeting of the Council of the Government held in Ponta Delgada last Monday.

According to André Bradford, the Azores Marine Park will include the protected oceanic areas that integrate the Natura 2000 Network, as they were classified under EU legislation, and those belonging to the network of marine protected areas under the OSPAR convention.

The Azores Marine Park will also integrate the Azores marine areas that “are crucial to the preservation of turtles, seabirds, whales and other relevant species,” which will be subject to specific schemes in order to ensure “the management of the areas and passage corridors that are important for the migration, feeding and reproduction of the species included in these areas.”

At the meeting, the Council of the Government also decided to authorise the signing of a contract-programme for the year 2011 between the Autonomous Region of the Azores and the Sociedade de Promoção e Gestão Ambiental, S.A (SPRAçores), in the amount of 1,920,000 Euros, to regulate the cooperation between parties under the actions deemed necessary to the implementation of the land management plans of hydrographic basins.

As the Regional Secretary of the Presidency stated, the intervention areas of SPRAçores include the “promotion of studies and the implementation of actions and projects in the context of special land management plans as well as other actions and projects addressed at the environmental protection and enhancement of the Region.”