PROJECTS
‘Dialogue4Nature‘ – D4N (2023-2029)
The Dialogue4Nature is a governance project under the Mission for Natural Heritage of the Interreg Euro-MED Programme. The overall Dialogue4Nature project´s aim is to contribute to the transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society, by protecting, restoring and valorizing the natural environment and heritage of the Mediterranean region. This will be applied by promoting improved governance and coordination between Mediterranean actors to harmonize nature conservation policies and mainstream them into sectoral policies.
The Mission for Natural Heritage of the Interreg Euro-MED Programme is focusing its efforts on addressing the above challenge.
The two governance projects of the Mission, the Community4Nature and the Dialogue4Nature are a continuation of the two horizontal Interreg Med (2019-2022) projects: ‘Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community‘ and ‘Blue Growth‘. The partners of the two governance projects are working closely to uptake the knowledge, results and outputs produced under the two Interreg Med projects, to transfer them to other contexts and to mainstream them into effective policies.
Community4Nature will provide the opportunity to treasure lessons learned and uptake valuable results, supported by the liaising and coordination activities of the Dialogue4Nature project, which will boost relations between key actors of the Mediterranean region, building upon existing networks and identify key opportunities to enhance collaboration for policy harmonization and innovative governance practices.
A core community is established (over 100 organizations) creating a fruitful environment for collecting and sharing knowledge, engaging stakeholders and promoting successful solutions for better development and governance. Additionally, the Mission4Nature will increase the visibility and impacts of the results of different Thematic projects (TPs) that will be co-financed by the Interreg Euro-MED programme for the period of 2024-2029.
The project started in January, 2023, and will last till September, 2029 (81 months). Lead Partner organisation is Region of Crete (Greece), and project partners are International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources – Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (Spain), Plan Bleu for Mediterranean Environment and Development (France), MedCities (Spain), Marine Institute (Croatia), Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism (Montenegro) and Autonomous Region of Sardinia (Italy).
The Marine Institute (MI) will contribute to the project by leading the Working Group on valorising the socio-economic value of biodiversity, liaising with other working groups within the Dialogue4Nature project and external specialists in ecological economics.
The MI will also work as a policy focal point for the development of transboundary governance within the marine environment, focussing on the upscaling of governance framework developed within the MBPC project for the Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) within the Mediterranean. Capitalising on the work of the MBPC, the Dialogue4Nature will upscale the EBSA framework to other regions of the Mediterranean and higher policy levels within the EU. The MI will work with institutional partners to co-produce knowledge at the science-policy interface to mainstream transboundary conservation within the existing governance structures at EU and Mediterranean level and will be showcased at global level.
The Marine Institute will be the focal point for internal and external communications for the project, developing the Communication Strategy and Action Plan and providing materials to partners to ensure consistency within the project.
Visit the official Mission for Natural Heritage website: www.natural-heritage.interreg-euro-med.eu.
Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund
‘Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community‘ – MBPC (2019-2022)
The Med Biodiversity Protection Community/MBPC (“PANACeA2”) is a horizontal project whose activities aim at strengthening management of & cooperation among protected areas (PAs) and ecoregions & to influence the dialogue science-management-policy as tools to increase capacities for nature conservation & monitoring. The project builds on PANACeA’s streamlining mechanism to ensure an active community of Mediterranean actors meant to overcome sectoral borders by integrating knowledge, allowing a better informed multilevel decision-making and management of biodiversity.
The MBPC facilitates multisectoral dialogue with the scientific community to ensure an effective policy-management-science interface in the Mediterranean related to biodiversity protection and sustainable development. It pursues the long term strategic goal of the Interreg MED programme by reaching beyond EU Member States into the whole Mediterranean basin. It aims to feed EU, UNEP/MAP Barcelona Convention and CBD policies linked to the protection of natural resources for sustainable development in Mediterranean protected areas and key ecological function units and ecosystems.
To reach its objectives, the BPC ensures guiding two types of processes for an uptake by regional policies to support them reaching their targets to 2020 and to prioritise their policy aspirations beyond 2020 through enforced and well managed PAs network and working beyond MPAs with an ecosystem approach to address major types of pollution and climate change effcts
The project started in November, 2019, and will last till June , 2022 (32 months). Lead Partner organisation is University of Malaga – European Topic Center (Spain), and project partners are Conference of peripheral maritime regions of Europe (France), Plan Blue for Mediterranean environment and development (France), MEDCITIES (Spain), Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism (Montenegro), LATTE CREATIVE S.R.L. (Italy), and Marine Institute (Croatia).
MI has worked closely with Blue World Institute (BWI, Croatia) and the Croatian Natural History Museum organising workshops, lectures and public awareness activities as part of the LIFE Euroturtles project, EMFF MarGnet project and Interreg Italy-Croatia Soundscape and ECOSS projects. As the MI is a public equivalent body founded by the BWI and the City of Mali Lošinj it can upon the non-governmental and governmental networks of these two organisations to ensure the widest transfer of the results of this project through local and regional events, projects and campaigns and working meetings. This structure combines logistical support of the BWI and the financial support of the local public municipality.
The Marine Institute will contribute to the project by sharing and exchanging knowledge and best practices with a community of stakeholders interested in biodiversity conservation and management measures particularly in the Adriatic region.
Visit the official MBPC website: https://biodiversity-protection.interreg-med.eu/.
