Plan Bleu organized the 4th workshop on the science-policy interface (SPI) strengthening, held in in Madrid, Spain on 2 March 2017 with a focus on the usefulness of the risk-based approach to marine monitoring in the implementation of the EcApMEDII project. 120 participants from the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, UNEP / MAP, RACs, the academic research community and scientists attended the workshop. The objective was to highlight the usefulness of the risk-based approach for the strengthening of marine ecosystem monitoring strategies and for the implementation of IMAP at regional and national scales.
Plan Bleu organized the fourth workshop on the science-policy interface (SPI) strengthening, held in the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment in Madrid, Spain on 2 March 2017 with a focus on the usefulness of the risk-based approach to marine monitoring in the implementation of the EcApMEDII project.
120 participants from the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, UNEP / MAP, RACs, the academic research community and scientists attended the workshop.
The objective was to highlight the usefulness of the risk-based approach for the strengthening of marine ecosystem monitoring strategies and for the implementation of IMAP at regional and national scales.
The workshop was held back to back with the Meetings of the Ecosystem Approach (EcAp) Integrated Correspondence Group (CORMON) on Marine Litter, Biodiversity and fisheries, and Hydrography and coast co-organized by UNEP/MAP, MEDPOL, SPA RAC and PAP RAC. Joining the different events enabled to gather scientific researchers invited by Plan Bleu for the SPI workshop, scientific experts designated by governments of Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention to participate to the CORMON meetings, National Focal Points of UNEP MAP and RACs.
The meeting underscored the importance for countries to strengthen SPI in order to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) and specifically for the following topics: marine litter, biodiversity & fisheries, hydrography and coast. It was organized as a workshop highlighting the need to address the risk of non- achievement of GES of Mediterranean marine and coastal environments. In particular, the session focused on the Risk-based Approach (RBA), a transversal approach which was identified as an overarching principle for the IMAP of EcAp.
This workshop was the fourth event after a series of SPI workshops:
- The Inception workshop on SPI held at Sophia Antipolis, France, on December 15-16th, 2015 (see the report of the workshop),
- The SPI workshop on science Policy Interface (SPI) strengthening for the implementation of the UNEP/MAP Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Programme, for Pollution, held in Marseille on the 20-21 October 2016
- The SPI workshop on Science Policy Interface (SPI) strengthening in the field of Marine Protected Areas and Marine biodiversity in the Mediterranean held in Tangiers on the 28th November 2016
