The Minister for Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition, Mireia Mollà, has announced the launch of a Valencian Posidonia Surveillance Service, which will be operational next summer.
The regional minister along with her counterpart in the Balearic Government, Miquel Mir, have visited the Posidonia Meadows Surveillance Service of the Balearic Islands, which this year celebrates five years of operation, and whose example will serve as a model for the Valencian Community.
"Posidonia forests are 20 times more effective than terrestrial forests in capturing CO2 and are a structural habitat that must be protected." "The first Marine Surveillance Service of the Valencian Community will be launched in 2022 after verifying the good results it has given in the Balearic Islands", explained Mollà.
The need for a common policy to protect marine ecosystems has marked the positioning of the top Ecomediterránea celebrated by the Valencian and Balearic governments in Palma de Mallorca.
Mollà and Mir have agreed on the conservation of posidonia from a joint and transversal perspective. "All of us must get involved in the protection of these marine forests and join a network that goes beyond the institutional sphere", Mireia Mollà stressed.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition of the Generalitat has promoted a comprehensive policy for the preservation of posidonia that has a decree, currently on public display, which will be reinforced by an updated cartography accessible from a mobile application, as well as by the new Service of Surveillance.
In this regard, Mir has indicated: "We are the only two communities that have implemented specific regulations to protect the seagrass and now is the time for the State to take another step and demonstrate its commitment to marine biodiversity by allocating funds to the protection of posidonia ".
In this sense, both Mireia Mollà and Miquel Mir have put the accent not only on the conservation of marine vegetation meadows as the lung of the Mediterranean, but also on promoting research to recover degraded areas.
