%0 Journal Article 
%A Verdú Baeza, Jesús
%T Un espacio protegido por del Derecho ambiental europeo en el Norte de África: las Islas Chafarinas
%D 2022
%@ 2341-0868
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10498/27336
%X The archipelago of the Chafarinas Islands is the easternmost of the Spanish territories
in North Africa. It shares with the rest of the rocks and islands the fact that it is outside the
framework of Spain’s decentralised territorial administration and depends directly on the central
State administration. Like the rest of Spain’s territories in Africa (including Ceuta and Melilla), it has
been the subject of territorial claims by Morocco since its independence. Its maritime areas, like the
rest of the Spanish territories in Africa, have not been formally demarcated in the Spanish domestic
legal system.
In short, it is a territory with a special vulnerability that is the subject of legal disputes and recurrent
political crises with Morocco.
Unlike the rest of the Spanish territories in Africa, whose titles are based on derivative methods
of acquiring the territory, its incorporation into the national territory was carried out by virtue of an
original method, occupation.
A special singularity of this small archipelago derives from the fact that the whole of it is a protected
area under European environmental law. Recognition by the Commission in some ways reinforces
Spain’s position. At the same time, the environmental values of the territory provide opportunities
for cross-border cooperation with Morocco, with the possibility of using potential instruments for
building mutual trust, which should be based on the possibility of each party being able to safeguard
its initial legal positions.

%K Islas Chafarinas
%K Zona de Especial Protección para las Aves (ZEPA)
%K Zona Especialmente Protegida de Importancia para el Mediterráneo (ZEPIM)
%K marítimo
%~ Universidad de Cádiz