Projects

Sea temperature increase and changes in salinity and circulation, for instance, are causing changes in native species distribution, spread of alien species, mass mortalities of macrobenthic communities and jellyfish population blooms.
These changes don’t only cause impacts on marine biodiversity, but human activities as well - for example, the tourism and fishing sectors are being increasingly affected by it.
MPAs play an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, as they represent areas of reduced human pressure and concentrated conservation efforts.
If well-managed, they can contribute to build resilience for both coastal communities and marine biodiversity.
The MPA-Adapt project was developed to tackle those challenges through a multi-level approach.
Five marine protected areas from three Mediterranean countries were chosen to act as pilot sites for the development of climate change adaptation action plans and their integration into existing management frameworks.
In order to achieve this, they will undergo capacity building and one-on-one consultations with experts throughout the duration of the project.
Based on their experiences and other available data, the project will deliver a strategy for climate change adaptation in MPAs of the Mediterranean, which should lead other MPAs through the same process and facilitate the development of basin-wide application of adaptive management standards for dealing with climate change related issues.
An important component of the project will be the communication aspect, both on local level through awareness raising activities in pilot MPAs, and on basin level, through active dissemination of results and the presentation of the ground breaking methodology developed in the project.