Minister for Environmental Protection and Regional Development Raimonds Čudars (New Unity) has promised to revise the proposal for the Marine Protected Areas (MPA) nature protection plan, his communications adviser Sabīne Spurķe reports.
Taking into account the views expressed by stakeholders — including coastal fishermen and water sports representatives — regarding the proposed protected marine areas and the associated protection and usage rules, the public consultation on the Marine Protected Areas Nature Protection Plan has been suspended.
As a result, the current draft proposals will not be advanced further, and work on developing a new version of the plan will continue.
As reported earlier, in early December the Nature Conservation Agency (DAP) held a public consultation on the MPA protection plan at its Salacgrīva office.
According to Ilze Sabule, head of the DAP project Life Reef,
the purpose of the nature protection plan is to balance conservation interests with economic activities,
ensuring the preservation of natural values while allowing uninterrupted development.
The network of protected marine areas was established in 2010 and is part of the EU-wide Natura 2000 network, designed to safeguard marine habitats, species, and feeding and wintering grounds for migratory birds.
Within the project, marine biodiversity mapping has been carried out in the Exclusive Economic Zone, available data on Latvian marine waters have been reviewed, and proposals have been made to expand the network of protected areas while introducing different functional zones to support both sustainable biodiversity conservation and economic activity.
Coastal fishermen have voiced objections to the draft plan, arguing that it would impose disproportionate restrictions on fishing.
According to fishermen, the DAP is proposing significant limitations on fishing in large marine areas along the Latvian coast. Such measures, they argue, would severely impact economic activity in many towns and villages along the Gulf of Riga and the Baltic Sea, where fishing, fish smoking, and processing remain vital livelihoods for hundreds of families, fishing enterprises, and local businesses.
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