After over four years of work, the LIFE Marine IBA project has concluded with the first comprehensive national inventory of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) in the marine environment in Spain. This inventory complements the areas already identified for seabirds on land, primarily their breeding colonies.

This initiative has enabled the comprehensive protection of these birds through an integrated and coherent network of sites. A total of 42 marine IBAs have been identified, covering over 40,000km2, which is almost 5% of Spanish marine waters. There are 42 identified areas spread across Spanish waters. Ten of these areas are in the Canary Islands archipelago, eight are in the northwest of the peninsula (Cantabrian Sea), eight are in the Mediterranean-Atlantic transition zone (between the Alboran Sea and the Gulf of Cadiz), and 16 are in the Mediterranean.