WCC 2020 Res 022 - Progress Report

Since the previous update, no further updates have been shared on the engagements with the countries in Macaronesia, Members of the European Parliament, the UNESCO Catedra for marine sustainability and the Canary Islands Government on further confirmations and support for the proposal.

Based on publicly avaiable information, since the previous progress update in 2023, on 23-27 October 2023, Loro Parque Foundation with the support of Gabriel Mato, a Member of the European Parliament from the European People’s Party (PPE) organized a week of exhibition at the European Parliament, as well as conferences and debates on the most relevant issues, in which world specialists in biodiversity participated, as well as meetings with political representatives from the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, in which future lines of cooperation around the navy sonar moratorium and the associated marine reserve. The speakers who participated were experts in the different aspects of conservation biology and presented their reports at the three meetings that were scheduled to complement the exhibition, talks at the European Parliament. The exhibition, as well as the meetings, discussions, and knowledge exchange within the framework of the EU, have been made possible through the collaboration of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Species Survival Commission (SSC), the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), the Center for Species Survival of Macaronesia (CSS), and various global experts who are part of these organizations.

In addition, since the resolution was adopted, the IUCN Joint SSC-WCPA Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force has identified several Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) in the region that could be relevant in the scope of this resolution and offered sharing any information on IMMAs relating to the implementation of this resolution could be helpful.