News and Events

IN MEMORIAM: PROF. ALLAN T. WILLIAMS, a great scientist and friend!

Published: Monday, 12 December 2022

It is with the greatest sadness to inform the coastal community that Prof. Dr. Allan T. Williams passed away on 17 November 2022.

Prof. Allan T. Williams was Emeritus Professor at Swansea Metropolitan University, Swansea, Wales, UK. Allan was member of the CCMS Advisory Committee since the beginning in 2018 and supported actively our activities and research. He published >400 papers and reports, specialising in coastal processes and coastal management. He worked mainly in Europe, but also Africa, China, India, the USA and Latin America. He was an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; Scientific researcher at the International Hurricane Research Centre, Miami, USA and a holder of a Winston Churchill Fellowship award. Consultancies included work carried out for: Wardell-Armstrong Eng; Hyder Engineering; Robert West and partners; Asia Development Bank; International Coral Reef Organisation Ltd.; UNDP; EUCC; PAPRAC, Split, Croatia; CCMS (Advisory Committee), Bulgaria. He also served as the main pillar of the Mediterranean Coastal Foundation throughout the 30 years long lifetime of MEDCOAST.

Allan was an influencing scientist publishing in a diverse range of coastal management issues. More than this however, he was a great friend with enormous positive energy that he generously transmitted to entire coastal community. He was extremely supportive colleague and touched upon the lives of many young scientists through collective research and joint publications.

We've all walked along with him 'The Wales Coast Path' under his leadership, projects, field trips, papers, books, conferences, courses... all enlightened under his creative mind. An engineer, a tutor, a poet, an author, a musician, a gentleman… who gave all the best from his heart to all of us. We were happy with him, laughing, joking, talking, and sharing the happiness of successful works that we've achieved when walking together along his Path...

A huge THANK YOU, DEAR ALLAN, for your great contributions to the coastal science and to our lives!
We will not forget you...

From CCMS and the very many colleagues and friends all around the world!

MSP4BIO PROJECT WAS LAUNCHED: 26-27 SEPTEMBER 2022, AZORES, PORTUGAL

Published: Tuesday, 04 October 2022

The Kick-off Meeting for the official launching of the MSP4BIO project took place on 26-27 September 2022 at Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal (organised by the University of the Azores) and online.

MSP4BIO Kick off

The MSP4BIO project (Improved Science-Based Maritime Spatial Planning to Safeguard and Restore Biodiversity in a Coherent European MPA Network) is funded by the European Union` Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under the Grant Agreement: 101060707. The project runs for 3 years (August 2022 – August 2025 and its main objective is to develop and demonstrate the ways in which knowledge-based Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) becomes a vehicle and a tool for the protection and restoration of biodiversity in line with several policy objectives, within its more general objectives of promoting sustainable blue growth, and integrating maritime policies.

THE MSP-GREEN PROJECT STARTING

Published: Friday, 09 December 2022

MSP GREEN EU logos

The new EU funded MSP-GREEN project (Maritime Spatial Planning as enabler of the European Green Deal) was officially kick-offed on 07 December 2022 at a virtual event. The project has received funding by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), Grant Agreement: 101081314 — MSP-GREEN — EMFAF-2021-PIA-MSP and has the duration of 24 months (1 November 2022 – 31 October 2024).

MSP GREEN project Kick off

The MSP-GREEN is coordinated by CORILA (Consortium for Coordination of Research Activities of the Venice Lagoon), Italy. Other partners are: University of Venice (IUAV), Italy; National Research Council (CNR), Italy; Spanish National Research Council (SCIC), Spain; CEREMA (Centre for Studies and Expertise on Risks, the Environment, Mobility and Urban Planning), France; Regional Council of Southwest Finland (FI RCSW;) Center for Coastal and Marine Studies (CCMS), Bulgaria; Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia (MoEPRD); University of Western Brittany (UBO), France; IFREMER (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea), France; VASAB (Vision and Strategies around the Baltic Sea); Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), Germany.

Using Policy as a Tool to support Conservation and Restoration of Coastal Blue Carbon Ecosystems

Published: Tuesday, 30 August 2022

Coastal Blue Carbon Ecosystems

Recognizing that most environmental issues are best addressed through international cooperation, today there are a myriad of international policy processes meant to address the pressing challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainable development. The world of international policy – one of conference centres and country name plates; far away from mangrove forests – plays a key role in increasing global action to conserve and protect coastal blue carbon ecosystems. Within these international policy processes, such as the United Nations conventions on climate change and biodiversity, countries come together to set ambitious goals, take on-the-ground action at the national level, and share what they have achieved to date.

However, many of these policy processes were established decades ago, in isolation from each other, often making it difficult for countries to collaborate across their closely-related themes of climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development.

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