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The Mission-funded BLUE CONNECT project – with the participation of Center for Coastal and Marine Studies (CCMS) - brings together MPA managers, authorities, industries, and local communities to develop sustainable and systemic solutions for Europe’s marine environments. Anchored in the Mission Ocean and Waters, as both a Mission Charter and BPC, this newly launched project focuses on the strict protection, restoration, and co-management of MPAs to improve ecological connectivity.
BLUE CONNECT will make a splash with its Blueprint for Marine Conservation deliverable – a science-based, step-by-step guide for marine conservation planning, designed to support MPA managers, regional seas cooperation stakeholders, local communities, policymakers, business decision makers and marine planners’ efforts and actions. In this holistic modelling framework, the BLUE CONNECT team will integrate biodiversity, ecological functions, ecosystem services, and stakeholder input. Designed to be scalable, resilient, and adaptable across Europe, the Blueprint will evolve over time, considering the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. This Blueprint will be based on learnings from demonstrator sites in Europe, conducted under the project:
“Our project will improve the understanding of co-management and co-ownership challenges, gaps, and opportunities at local, national, and European levels and offer solutions based on demonstrated good practices. To achieve this, we are running 12 demonstrators across four sea basins, exploring passive restoration, innovative monitoring, stakeholder engagement, ecological connectivity, and active restoration. For example, at the Macaronesia demo site, we have already established a local stakeholder working group (LSWG) with 15 organisations where we uncovered that most MPAs have outdated Management Plans and limited examples of effective co-management.” Dr. Margarita Stancheva, Director of Center for Coastal and Marine Studies and partner of the BLUE CONNECT project
Read more: BLUE CONNECT: A Wave of Systematic Solutions for Marine Conservation
Coastal Union Germany (EUCC-D) is the national branch of the Coastal & Marine Union and member a member of the EUCC-Baltic network. EUCC-D goal is to promote the sustainable development of coasts and seas in Germany. On their website, you can learn more about EUCC-D and their work, the services offered, browse coastal databases and, of course, find out how to become a member of EUCC-D!
Read more of the EUCC-D recent activities through their updated webpage: https://www.eucc-d.de/beach-and-dune-network.html
D4.1 contains the Methodology for the co-development of MSP-GREEN recommendations and a set of key Annex, including the project Recommendations
The present recommendations have been prepared as part of the MSP-GREEN project: “Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) as Enabler of the European Green Deal (EGD)”. They provide suggestions on how to strengthen the content of Maritime Spatial plans (MS plans) and their implementation, monitoring and revision in the direction of EGD objectives. The recommendations were initially drafted by MSP-GREEN project partners based on the assessment of their country’s plans and capitalising on the outcome of other projects, such as eMSP NBSR (Emerging ecosystem-based Maritime Spatial Planning topics in North and Baltic Sea Regions). This initial draft was discussed within three focus groups, engaging about 15 experts with different backgrounds and from different organisations: the European Commission (EC), organisations of maritime sectors operating at the European Union (EU) level, EU level Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) for nature protection, universities and research institutions. The revised draft was discussed during a workshop organised as a side event of the European Maritime Day 2024 (Svendborg, DK) that saw the participation of about 20 experts, again with mixed composition. Feedback from the workshop was used to finalise the recommendations that are presented in this document.
Coastal Union Germany (EUCC-D) is the national branch of the Coastal & Marine Union and member a member of the EUCC-Baltic network. EUCC-D goal is to promote the sustainable development of coasts and seas in Germany. On their website, you can learn more about EUCC-D and their work, the services offered, browse coastal databases and, of course, find out how to become a member of EUCC-D!
Read more of the EUCC-D recent activities through their updated webpage: https://www.eucc-d.de/beach-and-dune-network.html
