From September 30th – October 2nd, project partners met in Berlin, Germany to kick-off the start of the project. The BLUE CONNECT project addresses the urgent need to protect and restore marine habitats and ecosystems and to overcome gaps in the effective implementation of EU and global legislation by mobilising the MPA managers, authorities, industries and local communities to co-develop and demonstrate a systematic approach to marine conservation planning and management.
BLUE CONNECT will create a Blueprint that will provide a stepwise approach and tools for identifying detailed and science-based conservation objectives, supporting the design and implementation of the necessary conservation measures to achieve those objectives and providing a system for monitoring and assessing conservation effectiveness. That will be enabled by creating a holistic modelling framework that integrates the wealth of elements of biodiversity, ecological functioning, ecosystem services and connectivity with the drivers of climate change in the definition of MPAs and ecological corridors, and that further includes parameters based on the social, economic and cultural feedback received from the stakeholders and local communities. It will moreover integrate temporal changes linked to climate change to ensure that derived conservation objectives support ecosystem resilience and services in the future.
This science-based understanding of ecosystem functioning will provide a basis for the design of sustainable MPAs and conservation planning and development of innovative stakeholder and citizen cooperation methods, fostering active engagement and sustainable stewardship. Therefore, the project will improve the understanding of co-management challenges, gaps, and opportunities at local, national, and European levels and offer solutions based on demonstrated good practices.
BLUE CONNECT will aid in designating new MPAs or expanding existing ones, transitioning to strict protection, restoring ecosystems, and enhancing ecological connectivity. By promoting stakeholder cooperation and citizen science initiatives, the project seeks to build a sense of co-ownership among communities, empowering them to play a crucial role in safeguarding marine ecosystems.
BLUE CONNECT’s 12 Demonstration Sites are distributed across four European sea-basins: the Atlantic, North Sea, Black Sea, and Mediterranean. These demo sites represent a diverse mix of nationally proclaimed MPAs and Natura 2000 sites, with pre-identified gaps and needs for better protection and management, showcasing various coastal and offshore habitats across Europe. This diversity highlights the versatility and applicability of the tools and frameworks offered by the BLUE CONNECT Blueprint.
This Horizon Europe project will start in September 2024 and will run until February 2028.
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