| Project Detail |
Networking to promote and protect marine ecosystems
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are crucial in efforts to stem the loss of biodiversity and disruption of ocean ecosystems. MPAs are places in the ocean that receive protection to safeguard biodiversity from abatable threats. In this context, the EU-funded BLUE4ALL project will align top-down regulatory demands about European (networks of) MPAs with bottom-up societal expectations as a guarantee for achieving efficient and resilient MPAs and networks of MPAs which meet EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 objectives. The project will mobilise stakeholders from 25 information sites and living labs located across the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea and the North-East Atlantic regions. The aim will be to promote knowledge transfer and cocreate robust and replicable social, governance, ecological and environmental tools.
BLUE4ALL will align top-down regulatory demands about European (networks of) MPAs with bottom-up societal expectations as a guarantee for achieving effective, efficient and resilient MPAs and networks of MPAs which meet EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 objectives. By mobilizing stakeholders from BLUE4ALL’s 25 information sites and Living Labs, i.e. locations across the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea and the North-East Atlantic regions where (networks of) MPAs have been established and from which lessons learned can be drawn about success and failure relative to how challenges were tackled, we will co-create robust and replicable social, governance, ecological and environmental tools to meet conservation and/or restoration objectives in socially sustainable and acceptable ways. These science-based tools will be tested in Living Labs, i.e. locations where (networks of) MPAs are in the process of establishment and where these tools can be fed into the ongoing MPA process. The operationalized and tested frameworks will ultimately be generalized into a Blueprint Platform for the co-creation of effective, efficient and resilient (networks of) MPAs. This scheme will separate generically encountered challenges and applied solutions from MPA (network)-specific challenges and solutions and develop guidance in a user-friendly manner to end-users (i.e. MPA (network) managers and authorities). This guidance will take the shape of an interactive web-based Blueprint Platform directing the end-users to those challenges and solutions most applicable to their site(s). User-friendliness and applicability will be maximized by cross-checking the Blueprint Platform development with the actors and stakeholders of the Living Labs throughout the whole process of its development. Knowledge transfer and interaction with stakeholders and society-at-large at local to regional scales will lead to the development of a platform for MPA networking to interact with communities of practice boosting the BLUE4ALL legacy to its ultimate goal to restore our oceans and waters. |
