Beskyttelse af havnaturen i indre danske farvande - status og ...

1.1 English Summary
Inner Danish waters contain a diverse range of habitats that are home to rich communities
of marine animals and plants. However, there are vast areas in e.g. the Eastern Kattegat
that remain unexplored, and the biological communities that can be found in some of
these areas are still unknown to us. In addition, marine habitats and the species that
inhabit them have for centuries been under constant pressure from activities such as
bottom trawling and the extraction of raw materials from the seabed.
The purpose of this report is to form a general view of the current state of the protection
of marine biodiversity in inner Danish waters and to provide recommendations for
improvement. Attention is largely focussed on the application of marine protected areas
as a management tool for the protection of marine nature from human activities that are
directly detrimental to marine plants, animals and habitats. Overriding issues such as
marine pollution and eutrophication, which may be the largest of all threats to marine life,
are not discussed here, since these problems can only be mitigated through long-term,
integrated national programmes for the improvement of water quality in general.
The introduction of the EC Habitats Directive in 1992 put Denmark under the obligation
to designate and protect marine sites for the sake of marine biodiversity conservation.
The report examines and describes currently designated sites on the basis of a generally
sparse knowledge base as well as less conventional sources of information. The report
also describes other cases of deliberate or coincidental marine nature protection in inner
Danish waters.
Some of the direct threats to marine biodiversity and ecology are examined, and it is
argued that the marine sites that are protected at present, as well as the management of
marine biodiversity in general, are far from adequate. Substantial improvements must be
made in order to ensure the protection of marine biodiversity in the future.
Based on scientific best practice, the precautionary principle and common sense, general
and site-specific recommendations and suggestions are developed for a realistic and
substantial upgrading of the present state of marine nature management and marine
protected areas in inner Danish waters. Following are but a few examples of these
recommendations:
• Additional designations of specific, protected sites are recommended.
• Where applicable, small protected sites should be joined as larger protected
areas, in order to optimise the effectiveness of protection, secure ecological
connections between areas and to simplify management.
• All activities that result in physical contact with marine habitats on the seabed
should be prohibited within marine protected areas.
• It is recommended that severely altered marine habitats, such as many of the
reefs in inner Danish seas, be reestablished in order to restore potentially lost
ecological connections.
The recommendations presented in the report correspond to an expansion of the
protection of marine areas in inner Danish waters from less than 8% to approximately
14%.
It is the hope of WWF-Denmark that this report will encourage and contribute to a much
needed examination, evaluation and upgrading of the way we protect and manage marine
biodiversity in our Danish seas.
8