Med-IAMER

The objective is to provide an integrated environmental status assessment to mitigate environmental risks to be addressed at trans-boundary scale in the Mediterranean Sea. The approach draws on the main pressures and the conservation level in the Western Mediterranean and the Adriatic-Ionian ecoregions (study areas) to identify spatial hotspots of environmental pressures.

Context : MED Programme

Med-IAMER project, coordinated by the European Topic Centre for Spatial Information and Analysis at the University of Málaga, is one of the 14 projects for an integrated maritime approach approved by the MED Programme 2014-2020.

The MED programme is a transnational programme of European territorial cooperation. It is financed by the European Union as an instrument of its regional policy and of its new programming period. It continues the tradition of the European programmes for cooperation (previously named Interreg). 

Med-IAMER fits with the priority axis 2 of MED programme related to environmental protection and promotion of a sustainable territorial development, and contributes to objective 2.1 : « Protection and enhancement of natural resources and cultural heritage ».

Main objectives of Med-IAMER project

• Improve the knowledge and spatial information on the intensity and distribution of Coastal and Maritime Environmental Pressures (CMEP) of the study areas;
• Provide a spatial overview of the protection measures of marine ecosystems in the study areas and on the effectiveness of their implementation;
• Identify the level of environmental pressures on marine protected areas and relevant coastal and marine ecosystems in the study areas through an analysis of the a) intensity of pressures and b) effectiveness of the protection measures;
• Categorize the main gaps, conflicts and cooperation opportunities in planning and management of Mediterranean coastal and marine areas.

Stakeholders’ consultation process

To reach these objectives, regional stakeholders’ consultations are scheduled to validate the available knowledge used for the assessment and to judge the effectiveness of cooperation mechanisms and trans-boundary arrangements put in place to overcome trans-boundary conflicts in the region.

This is Plan Bleu which is responsible for developing a structured dialogue with relevant stakeholders in order to validate main drivers, pressures and the relevance of policy responses in place to reduce drivers of change and environmental pressures in both ecoregions studied.