This article was published first here by MEDPAN on the 19 February.

Author: Ignasi Mateo, SCP/RAC

Are you concerned with marine litter pollution in your MPA? Plastic Busters MPAs is here to support you!

Plastic Busters MPAs[  is a 48-month-long project funded by Interreg Mediterranean aiming to support and work with MPA managers to maintain biodiversity and preserve natural ecosystems in the Mediterranean region. How?  By implementing actions that address the whole management cycle of marine litter, from monitoring and assessment to prevention and mitigation.

Plastic Busters MPAs brings together 15 implementing partners and 17 associated partners from 8 countries, namely Albania, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Italy, Greece, Slovenia and Spain. The management bodies of the Pelagos Sanctuary, the Tuscan Archipelago National Park, the National Marine Park of Zakynthos and the Cabrera Archipelago National Maritime-Terrestrial Park, are among the key partners of the project.

Plastic Busters MPAs kicked-off in 2018 with a studying phase that focused on elaborating and harmonizing marine litter methods and on shortlisting best practice marine litter measures. The monitoring methods were applied successfully applied during the project’s testing expeditions carried out at the MPAs of Cabrera, Pelagos Sanctuary, Tuscan Archipelago and Zakynthos in 2019.

Meanwhile the project kick-started the preparatory phase for solution-related actions against marine litter. Working for and from the perspective of an MPA manager, Plastic Busters MPAs shortlisted a set of 10 ‘no- regret’ measures’ to be piloted in the 4 partner MPAs of the project as well as in 6 selected partner MPAs of the ACT4LITTER project. The selected measures include best practices for tourism and recreation; solid waste management practices; replacement of single-use plastics; banning specific items and activities; awareness raising campaigns; port reception facilities; upcycling and/or recycling; extended producer responsibility schemes; fishing for litter and derelict fishing gear management schemes.

The outcomes and lessons learned of the project will serve as a basis for up-scaling and replicating the project’s marine litter activities in other Mediterranean MPAs. Please keep an eye on the Plastic Busters MPAs calendar for our upcoming trainings and capitalization events and follow us on Facebook or Twitter for all the latest project updates. Feel free to register on our newsletter too![

This article was first published on Interreg Blue Growth website.

The Blue Growth Community organized its First Annual Assembly with a significant participation of the new associated projects and many interested regions in Blue Economy

The last 4^th and 5^th February 2020, the Blue Growth Community, represented by the core members of the MED Blue Growth projects, the Blue Growth associated partners, as well as other relevant stakeholders, gathered in Montpellier (France).

The new horizontal Blue Growth project (2019-2022), which succeeded the 1^st phase horizontal project InnoBlueGrowth (2017-2019), organized its first annual assembly in Montpellier, in order for the Blue Growth Community to meet with its new members and at the same time, to go further in the cooperation with the Blue Growth projects and strengthen the links with political and institutional key stakeholders, such as the Mediterranean Regions.

The Blue Growth project proposes concrete activities to enhance the capitalization nature of this second phase of MED projects, with the aim to deepen the dissemination and transferability of modular projects results dealing with Blue Growth issues including maritime surveillance, yachting, renewable energies, aquaculture, fisheries, maritime and coastal tourism, among others. The project intends to achieve two key goals: first, to have a better transfer of modular projects technical results into policy making and second, to benefit the development of the Blue Economy and entrepreneurship, mainly for SMEs.

Following this line, the 1^st Annual Assembly of the Blue Growth Community was also the occasion for sharing specialized knowledge on Blue Economy issues, exchanging reflections and good practices to address common challenges and keep working together for the implementation of a sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean.

This ‘two days’ event gathered a significant representation not only of the Blue Growth partners and associated partners but also of the MED Blue Growth projects and some regions from different Mediterranean countries (Albania, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal and Spain).

During the 1^st day, attending participants and Community members participated very actively in the discussions that followed the 5 specialized panels on sustainability, synergies and cooperation, harmonization and strengthening of the use of coastal and maritime planning, funds and financial instruments and education and awareness raising in the Blue Economy. All debates and discussions tried to give answers and reflect on the seven key policy recommendations included in the “Policy Paper” that resulted from the 3 years’ work of the former InnoBlueGrowth project.

Some of the most interesting answers and reflections coming from these different panels are the following:

• First, the consciousness among different MED regions of the need of a long-term strategy for a sustainable Blue Economy as an important policy measure for regional development (e.g. the Bio Economy approach of Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in Italy; the preparation of a strategy for sustainable tourism in Albania; the development of a coastline strategy in Occitanie Region through different littoral plans in France).
• Second, the good practices presented by some Clusters revealed good initiatives at the time of sum up synergies with their partners (e.g. the Online seminars and Blue Awards of the Maritime Cluster of Andalusia; the push for innovation of the Italian National Tech Cluster; the 1^st accelerator for diversity in Blue Economy of the Cluster of the Maritime Balearic Islands), but there is still plenty of room for cooperation among MED Clusters.
• Third, the need for a stronger harmonization of legislation, rules and procedures and above all, the urgent need of knowledge and data sharing among MED regions for a better maritime and coastal planning. In this sense, the MED OSMoSIS Strategic project pointed out the challenge for more interoperability among regions.
• Fourth, the participatory approach implemented by MAESTRALE project -with the active participation of students who became “Ambassadors” of the project in all towns visited and the usage of “comics” to explain the project for younger audiences- revealed to be a very successful good practice for raising awareness about the Blue Economy among people.

The themes tackled by the speakers captured the interest of all Community members and participating stakeholders. The lively debates deepened the participants’ feeling of being part of the Blue Growth Community.

Precisely, this feeling of Community increased during the second day with the presentation of the Advisory Board. It was the occasion, in the first place, for introducing the Blue Growth Community to the new MED Blue Growth projects and attending regions, as well as for putting into practice an interactive and participatory exercise with all participants where the role and goals of the new Advisory Board were discussed. This exercise will continue through the Advisory Board’s “working groups” that will draw the methodology for the mainstreaming of Blue Growth projects’ results in the Mediterranean region.

The Blue Growth Project counts with a 1,470.588 € funding (of which €1,2M of EU co-funding) in the framework of the transnational cooperation programme Interreg Med.

The original article is available at (link removed/ page inactive)

More information on the Blue Growth Community at https://blue-growth.interreg-med.eu/.

The Deep Blue project is closing its first year. The second one is starting. What is the Deep Blue project? Who is it addressed to? What are its goals?

The project team is pleased to release the video presentation of the Deep Blue project giving an overview of the main steps and aims. Please check this out at the link below or in the gallery tab.

The Deep Blue project aims at developing skills, building capacities, and enhancing the geopolitical dialogue in the Western Mediterranean region through increased international scientific cooperation (Science Diplomacy).

It focuses on the main concerns related to the sustainable Blue Growth in the marine environment, such as the development and sharing of tools for monitoring and assessing environmental impacts of specific maritime activities and the use of marine spatial planning through the ecosystem-based approach.

The project is co-funded by the EMFF – European maritime and Fisheries fund.

Source: http://www.bluegrowth.inogs.it/content/deepbluevideonews