Selvagens Island
is the biggest Marine Protected Area (MPA) of the North Atlantic, with full protection, covering a territory of 2,677 km2, in an area of 12 nautical miles around the Selvagens Islands Nature Reserve.

The reserve has hereby significantly been extended, previously being 94,71 km2. All species in this area are now fully protected against all extractive activities, including but not limited to, fishing and mining.

This milestone poses a huge challenge: financing the necessary resources and infrastructures for assuring an effective protection of Selvagens Islands MPA, while using it as a catalyser for monetising blue economy with sustainable business models that base their competitiveness on a healthy ocean.

In this way, the Presidency of the Regional Government of Madeira, Fórum Oceano and The Economist magazine are organizing the «Selvagens Islands MPA: A Catalyser for a Sustainable Blue Economy» conference, which will tackle these issues.