Marine Policies to marine environment protection and its resources

Abstract

Marine resources exploitation must be exercised by the State in accordance with its duty to protect and to preserve the marine environment and integrated into its environmental policy. This policy shall be based on the precaution, prevention, correction of damage to the environment and polluterpays principles. The compatibility of these rights and obligations is achieved through an ecosystem and holistic approach. This approach must be exercised in a prospective way in a specific national strategy defined for the time for which it is intended. Sensitive ecosystems, in which Marine Protected Areas are part of, must be subject to enhanced protection. The conservation measures of MPAs, even if they affect fishing resources, integrate the EU environmental policy, constituting shared and not exclusive competence of the EU. As an EU StateMember Portugal must harmonize its policies with those of the EU, without forgetting that time does not stop and that the use (current and potential) of marine resources must be accompanied by the necessary regulatory framework.