This Green Paper expresses the will of all Spanish institutions to develop and build a common area of action with a view to complying with the objectives of Spain’s National Plan for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. To that end, the Working Group was named by the Technical Coordinating Committee for the implementation of the National Plan for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage passed by the Historical Heritage Council. This group, comprised of the Directors of the three underwater archaeology centres in Andalusia, Catalonia and Valencia, experts from some of the Autonomous
Communities, universities and the Ministry of Culture through the "National Museum of Underwater Archaeology” (ARQUA), also benefitted from the collaboration and advice of specialists from the navy and national law enforcement officials.

The Green Paper is the fruit of two years of meetings and debates of the Working Group coordinated by the technicians of the "National Museum of Underwater archaeology” (ARQUA) and the Deputy Directorate-General for the Protection of Historical Heritage, for the purpose of analysing the real status of Spain’s underwater archaeology, affected by a clear imbalance in favour of the Mediterranean coast over the Atlantic in terms of research, equipment and human resources. The
Green Paper establishes the framework on which to plan future actions to meet the objectives and aims of Spain’s National Plan for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage.

In this connection, the Green Paper is the agreed commitment of all of the institutions involved and of the Autonomous Communities to develop documentation programmes, compile inventories and sketch archaeological maps to improve and standardise the management of our rich underwater heritage, much of which is yet to be discovered. This requires standardisation of archaeological interventions and of conservation in line with the provisions laid down in the Annex to the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (Paris, 2 November 2001) ratified by Spain on 6 June 2005. It is also necessary to train future generations of archaeologists and specialists to be the caretakers of this legacy of our historical memory embodied in our Underwater Cultural Heritage, possibly the most universal of our heritages considering Spain’s history as a maritime nation open to all oceans throughout its history.