Plastic Busters MPAs: a new project to end up with plastic marine litter in the Med

Welcome to Plastic Busters MPAs! The new Interreg Med project will benefit from SCP/RAC’s expertise on marine litter solutions to tackle this issue in the Med Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The project had been launched during the 1^st Steering committee meeting and the kick-off meeting, both held in Siena (Italy) on the 15^th and 16^th of April 2018.

This first steering committee brought together the 15 partners of the project from Albania, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy and Spain while the kick-off meeting, organized by the University of Siena (UNISI), was the occasion to make a public presentation of the project.

The launch of this project is the concretisation of a long process initiated in 2016 with the labialization of the Plastic Busters project by the 43 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean as a priority regional initiative to prevent, reduce and remove marine litter from the Mediterranean Sea.

The context:

Plastics, including micro plastics represent about 80% of marine litter found in the Mediterranean. Marine litter is a global issue and poses a serious threat to biodiversity, as millions of tons of this litter end up in the sea, transforming the Mediterranean Sea into one of the areas most affected by marine litter in the world. The impact of marine litter on marine biota within MPAs, including endangered species, remain poorly addressed, however it is clear that prevention and mitigation measures are urgently needed. The overall objectives of Plastic Busters MPAs project is to contribute to maintain biodiversity and preserving natural ecosystems in pelagic and coastal MPAs, by defining and implementing a harmonized approach against marine litter.

The project entails actions that address the whole management cycle of marine litter, from monitoring and assessment to prevention and mitigation, as well as actions to strengthen networking between and coastal MPAs located in Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Albania and Greece.

Led by ISPRA as project coordinator and UNISI as scientific coordinator, the partnership brings together 15 Mediterranean national and regional organisations with high expertise and concerned by marine litter.

Lasting 48 months, Plastic Busters MPAs is divided in 6 work packages: Project management, communication, studying, testing, transferring and capitalising.

The role of SCP/RAC in Plastic Busters MPAs?

SCP/RAC is the lead partner of the communication work package and responsible for the elaboration of the internal and external communication strategy. The centre is also involved in the preparation of the demo projects (Testing) on Marine Litter prevention and in the identification of marine litter best practice measures to be showcased in these demo projects. Finally, SCP/RAC will be also actively participating in the transferring activities  and will participate to the trainings on how to implement selected marine litter measures in the Med MPAs (workshops and e-learning).

SCP/RAC will build bridges between the current ACT4LITTER project on the definition of measures to tackle Marine Litter in MPAs, that the centre is leading,  into this new Interreg project. 

Plastic Busters MPAs:

Interreg Med project. Horizontal Project: Biodiversity Protection

Date: April 2018 – January 2022

Budget: 5M (EU Interreg Med funded)

Lead partners: ISPRA

Partners:

• Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) Italy
•  University of Siena - Department of Physical Sciences, Earth And Environment (UNISI) - Italy
• Corsican Agency For Environment (OEC) - France
• Regional Government of the Balearic Islands. Department of Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries (CAIB) - Spain
•  Management Agency of Zakynthos National Marine Park (Ε.Θ.Π.Ζ.) Greece
•  Tuscan Archipelago National Park (PNAT), Italy
• Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE) Greece
•  Spanish Oceanographic Institute, Balearic Centre of Oceanography  (IEO), Spain
•  Hellenic Centre for Marine Research-Institute of Oceanography (HCRM), Greece
•  French Research Institute for Explotation of the Sea – Département Océanographie et Dynamique des Ecosystèmes–Laboratoire Environnement Ressources des régions Paca et Corse (IFREMER), France
•  Catalan Waste Agency – Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC), Spain
• Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy, Special Secretariat for Water (EGU), Greece
• Albanian Ministry of Environment - Directorate of Biodiversity and Protected Areas (MM), Albania
•  Ministry of Environmental and Nature Protection of Croatia
•  University of Split, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy, UNIST-FGAG), Croatia

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