PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The Mediterranean monk seal, Monachus monachus, a priority species of the Habitats Directive, is a highly endangered marine mammal and one of the six most threatened mammals in the world. It is listed in the appendices of the Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, the Bern Convention on the Conservation of the European Wildlife and Natural Habitats and CITES. It is also included in the Barcelona and the Biodiversity Conventions. Its world population is estimated to be not more than a few hundreds, the two thirds of which are estimated to live and breed within Greek coastal zones. Within the EU territory, the main surviving populations are found in Greece, where its population is estimated to be around 200-300 individuals.
The main threats to the monk seal are human activities. It is deliberately killed or accidentally caught in fishing equipment, and its food sources are being reduced. In addition, marine pollution and uncontrolled tourism are causing the destruction of its natural habitat.
In order to halt the species’ decline and to improve the species’ precarious status, this project was based on a series of interdependent actions in four targeted coastal areas in Greece, where 9 pSCIs included in the Hellenic National List are found. These four areas have been selected in the basis of previous inventory work and are strategically located within the species’ range. The project is based on the National Strategy for the Monk Seal, validated by the Ministry of Environment. One ACNAT project (1/92-12/94) and one DG ENV-funded project (1/95-12/95) on the monk seal preceded this project.
OBJECTIVES
The project’s main objective was to protect the endangered Mediterranean monk seal and its habitat by in situ conservation actions and by establishing Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) in four selected areas that are among the strongholds of M. monachus; these four areas are: Eastern Aegean (Samos & Ikaria-Fourni), Dodecanese (Karpathos & Kassos), Cyclades (Milos, Antimilos & Polyaigos) and Ionian islands (Zakynthos).
Three interdependent sets of actions were foreseen to achieved those objectives:
RESULTS
The project made significant progress in all the types of actions that it had originally foreseen to undertake. More specifically:
The biotic and abiotic factors of each site were inventoried, and most importantly, all threats related to human activities were identified. In Zakynthos, some interesting work was done concerning the issue of seal and fisheries interaction: regular monitoring of damage to fish catch and fishing gear was undertaken. Project staff accompanied professional fishermen in order to record data on damage and seal sightings. Damage from monk seals on fish catch and fishing gear was estimated to be important.
All this knowledge was used as the basis for the elaboration of proposals for the legal protection of the species, and was compiled in two very important studies (the monk seal status report and the inventory of biotic and abiotic factors). The project also provided the Ministry of Environment with updated faunistic and floristic inventories used to update the Natura 2000 Standard Data forms of the corresponding sites.
Local, regional and national authorities were consulted and lobbied throughout the periods of elaboration of the aforementioned documents, so as to ensure a faster procedure following the official submission of the documents to the national authorities. A major achievement of the project was the extension of two existing pSCIs in order to include neighbouring areas that were identified as important for the monk seal.
The project has therefore set a stable ground for the conservation and even the improvement of the species population status and the conditions of its habitats. The most determining factor for the long-term success of the project is the actual implementation of the management and conservation plans that were elaborated through the project.