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While all the four sections of Annex I are of fundamental importance to guarantee the well-
functioning of SPAMIs, the part of the Annex that is most relevant to the purpose of the current
effort, i.e. the definition of criteria for the selection process, is Section B (“General features of the
areas that could be included in the SPAMI List”). However, these criteria alone are insufficient to
ensure that a representative network of MPAs – including in the Open Seas – will develop in the
Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately, the current process for progressively enlisting MPAs in the
SPAMI List (i.e., with the responsibility for proposing additions to the List resting solely on the
initiative and goodwill of the individual Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention), important
as it is, is not necessarily conducive to the development of a Mediterranean network of MPAs that
is ecologically representative and that will afford protection to the full range of the region’s
biodiversity.

To achieve this, it will be necessary to integrate the SPAMI selection criteria with criteria that were
recently developed to address building of representative networks of MPAs, especially in areas
with limited scientific information, such as the high seas (Convention on Biological Diversity 2008).
In addition, it will be important to ensure that the programme of MPA network development in the
Mediterranean is in harmony with an articulated regional planning process (Agardy 2005), which is
widely shared, as advocated years ago by the World Commission on Protected Areas during an ad
hoc scoping meeting (Livorno, Italy, December 2004: Notarbartolo di Sciara 2006).

3.1.2 CBD ecological criteria and biogeographic classification systems for marine areas in
need of protection

New guidelines and useful criteria were developed during an “Expert workshop on ecological
criteria and biogeographic classification systems for marine areas in need of protection”, organised
in the Azores in October 2007 under the auspices of CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity
2008). These criteria were later adopted during the 13th SBSTTA Meeting held in Rome in Feb.
2008. We consider these criteria quite relevant to the current effort. In particular, the Azores
workshop produced:

1. Scientific criteria for identifying ecologically or biologically significant marine areas
(“EBSAs”) in need of protection, in open-ocean waters and deep-sea habitats, including
examples of features that would meet such criteria.

2. Scientific criteria and guidance for selecting areas to establish a representative network of
marine protected areas, including in open-ocean waters and deep-sea habitats.

The criteria for EBSAs identified by the workshop include:

• Uniqueness or rarity (to the best of the available knowledge),
• Special importance for life history stages of species,
• Importance for threatened, endangered or declining species and/or habitats,
• Vulnerability, fragility, sensitivity or slow recovery,
• Biological productivity,
• Biological diversity,
• Naturalness.