Page 5 - Small_islands_2019

Island Studies Journal, 14(2), November 2019, pages 115-136

Figure 1: Central Mediterranean islands representing the study area. Source: QGIS, 2016.

All of these islands have terrestrial areas that have been granted protection through national
and EU legislation and through international conventions, with several sites receiving protection
through more than one designation. The Maltese archipelago has several terrestrial protected
areas, mostly found in coastal areas, including 34 Natura 2000 sites. In the case of the island of
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Malta, the dimensions of the 22 terrestrial protected areas range from 0.002 km to 23.17 km ,
whereas in the case of Gozo, the dimensions of the 11 terrestrial Natura 2000 sites range from
0.02 km to 2.96 km . Comino and its islets are completely protected and cover an area of 2.9
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km . In terms of terrestrial terrains, across the Maltese archipelago 30.29% (98 km ) of the total
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land area (325 km ) is protected (MESDC, 2018; Protected Planet, 2018). The unitary island of
Pantelleria has two main areas which are protected, a central area of 30.99 km and a coastal area
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almost surrounding the entire island, amounting to 34.02 km . In the case of the Aegadian and
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Pelagic Islands, the respective islands are almost fully protected, save for their respective confined
inhabited areas (EUR-Lex, 2015).
With respect to the marine environment, protected areas are found surrounding all islands
except Pantelleria, where a debate concerning establishment of an MPA is ongoing (Picchetti et
al, 2010; Rampini, 2016). Meanwhile, almost the entire island and the surrounding marine area
are protected as an Important Bird Area (Sposimo, 2014). The total marine protected sites in
the Maltese archipelago are equivalent to 4138 km , an area larger than the country itself,
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amounting to over 35% of Maltese waters (MESDC, 2018; Protected Planet, 2018). The MPA
in the Aegadian Islands encompasses the entire archipelago and covers an area of 542 km . This
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is the largest MPA established in Italy to date (Himes, 2007; Mannino & Balistreri, 2018). A
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portion of the waters surrounding the Pelagic Islands, with an area comprising 41 km , is also
an MPA (La Manna et al, 2014; Giardina, 2012).

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