UNEP/MAP-SPA/RAC is a partner in the new project “ENSERES” financed by the European Union. The kick-off meeting took place in Malaga on 20 October.

The project ENSERES (ENhancing Socio-Ecological RESilience in Mediterranean coastal areas) funded by the European Union under the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation program ENI CBC Med, has kicked off in Malaga on 20 October 2021 bringing together international organizations engaged in research, environmental protection, and public authorities from five countries to start the work plan for the next 24 months, until September 2023.

SPA/RAC is part of this new partnership among Mediterranean cities and marine protected area networks. The objective of this new collaboration is to enhance transfer monitoring and management knowledge and techniques and digital tools across the Mediterranean shores. The knowledge about ecosystems and biodiversity and the environmental threats and pressures they face will provide the basis for the adoption of protection and management measures with an integrated approach, in particular in Sfax (Tunisia) and in Tyre (Lebanon).

The project aims to integrate existing management tools with an ecosystem-based approach into coastal and marine areas.  The Mediterranean natural resources offered by the sea and its surroundings are crucial for its economic and social sustainability. This project should help people living along the coast to better know the value of these ecosystems and engage them in their protection through an enhanced integrated management of human activities.

In this context, SPA/RAC will coordinate new SPAMI twinnings between northern and southern Mediterranean countries which consist in exchanging experiences, on-the-field trainings and joint actions. The Centre will also, in coordination with the partners, launch a call for small grants in order to involve the local CSO in the SPAMI management and the ICZM around the SPAMIs of Tyre Coast (Lebanon) and Kneiss (Sfax, Tunisia). Moreover, following the elaboration of a policy and community mapping, SPA/RAC will organize a policy makers and donors conference in order to capitalize and mainstream the strategies that will be newly adopted (Post-2020 SAPBIO et and Post-2020 Regional Strategy for MCPAs and OECMs in the Mediterranean).

The ENSERES project for improving the ecological and social resilience of coastal communities in the Mediterranean area is endowed with a budget of 1.1 M € and funded at 90% by the European Union, under the ENI CBC Med program for a duration of two years. The project is led by ETC-UMA and executed in partnership with the Specially Protected Areas Regional Activity Centre (UNEP/MAP-SPA/RAC, based in Tunisia), MedCities (Mediterranean Cities Network, Spain), MedPAN (Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas Network, France), and the MedSea Foundation (Italy), in collaboration with the Natural Reserve of Tyre in Lebanon and the Sfax Municipal authority in Tunisia among other stakeholders.

For further information:
Saba Guellouz, Project Officer at SPA/RAC, saba.guellouz@spa-rac.org
Christoph Schröder, Project's Coordinator, ETC-UMA, christoph.schroder@uma.es

Project's website: https://www.enicbcmed.eu/projects/enseres

Read the press release issued by ETC-UMA.