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The biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea is under increasing threat from legacy and emerging contaminants, marine litter, noise and light pollution, invasive species and habitat destruction -all of which are driven by growing human activity and intensified by climate change. In response, the newly launched MIRAMAR project is setting the stage for transformative, cross-border collaboration to tackle these escalating threats.
On June 24, partners from six Mediterranean countries gathered online for the official kick-off meeting of MIRAMAR — Monitoring cumulative Impact to guide Mitigation and RestorAtion in the MediterrAnean Region — a 33-month project funded by Interreg Euro-MED.
The meeting marked the start of a region-wide effort to develop a joint approach to improve our understanding of, and response to, the combined effects of different environmental pressures on three vital ecosystems in the Euro-Mediterranean region: seagrass meadows, wetlands and habitats of endangered species. The aim of the MIRAMAR project is to design, test, and validate a new holistic monitoring method to identify suitable nature-based mitigation and restoration solutions.
Over the next three years, working across nine pilot areas in six Mediterranean countries — Albania, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy and Spain — MIRAMAR will:
- Monitor how multiple stressors interact and impact vulnerable ecosystems
- Test harmonised methods for environmental data collection and analysis
- Develop nature-based solutions for ecosystem restoration
- Engage local actors through Living Labs and co-creation approaches
The kick-off meeting highlighted the project’s ambition to transform scientific knowledge into action, by linking local knowledge with Mediterranean, European and Euro-Mediterranean policy priorities.
MIO-ECSDE plays a pivotal role in the project by leading the work package dedicated to identifying solutions to multiple stressors and catalyzing change through the establishment of living labs. Drawing on its extensive capacity-building experience, it will also develop training materials and tools, and carry out pollutant and stressor testing in the Amvrakikos Gulf (Greece).
MIRAMAR builds on over a decade of regional collaboration to tackle marine litter and environmental degradation in the Mediterranean. The project traces its origins to the Plastic Busters Initiative, launched in 2013 under the endorsement of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). Key milestones in this journey include the Interreg Plastic Busters MPAs, ENI CBC Plastic Busters CAP and ENI CBC COMMON. These pioneering projects implemented a harmonised approach to monitoring, preventing and mitigating marine litter in sensitive coastal and marine protected areas, while also contributing significantly to the science–policy–society interface across local, national and regional levels. Building on this legacy, MIRAMAR represents a natural evolution of the Plastic Busters Initiative — expanding its focus from marine litter to the cumulative impact of multiple environmental stressors, including chemical and biological pollution, noise and light pollution, and habitat degradation.
The MIRAMAR team is now moving into full implementation, with upcoming fieldwork, stakeholder engagement activities, and training development already underway.
Stay tuned as MIRAMAR begins charting a new path toward more sustainable and resilient ecosystems for the years to come.
Read this in French here.