AMARE - Actions for Marine Protected Areas

Introduction

In the Mediterranean Sea, the intensive use of maritime space, calls for integrated management to avoid cumulative impacts and user conflicts. Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) – the harmonisation of human activities in marine area is advocated as a powerful approach to reach these goals. However, in most Mediterranean countries, MSP is still in its infancy.

Objectives

The main objectives of AMAre project are to:

Develop shared methodologies and geospatial tools for multiple stressors assessment, coordinated environmental monitoring, multi-criteria analyses, and stakeholders’ engagements, and
Develop concrete pilot actions and coordinated strategies in selected Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to address hot spots of conflicts affecting marine biodiversity and the services it provides.

The expected results are:

Transnational cooperation and policy recommendations;
Development of coordinated best practices;
Data access to share information and concrete stakeholder;
Users involvement .

The project will assist in scaling up strategies and recommendations at a transnational level. This will aid in adopting an ecosystem-based approach and consider the goals of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) across MPAs.

Project details

PROJECT REFERENCE	AMAre (649)
PROJECT TITLE	Actions for Marine Protected Areas
DURATION	November 2016 – October 2019
TOTAL BUDGET OF THE PROJECT	€ 2,663,093.33
TOTAL BUDGET FOR MALTA	€ 380,000.00
EU CONTRIBUTION FOR MALTA	€ 323,000.00

Beneficiaries

LEAD	CoNISMa (Italy)
PARTNERS	CMCC, Italy; CNR-ISMAR, Italy; University of Malta, Malta; Spanish National Research Council, Spain; HCMR, Greece; IFREMER, France; Management Consortium of Torre Guaceto, Italy; Management Body of The National Marine Park of Alonissos Northern Sporades, Greece; Regional Government of the Balearic Islands – Department of Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries, Spain.

Further information on the project can be accessed through the following links: