Brief update of the MedBioLitter database version 10 updated in January 2023

The MedBioLitter knowledge base is an entry-point to the peer reviewed research evidence published on the impacts of marine litter on marine biota in the Mediterranean region. This knowledge base was created in 2017, under the Interreg-Med funded initiative PANACeA (2016-2019), and has been periodically updated every 6 months since then. The MedBioLitter knowledge base reports on the increased evidence on marine litter sources, occurrence and impacts. Through its interactive dashboard, it helps users understand marine litter concerns and supports evidence-based decisions and actions to reduce pressures coming from marine litter and impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems in the Mediterranean region.

Supporting cetacean conservation in the Pelagos Sanctuary

A new report has been presented today, 18 November 2022, online in the frame of the cooperation between the Pelagos Permanent Secretariat and the Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community (MBPC), a project led by ETC-UMA. The new report, entitled Pathways to coexistence between large cetaceans and maritime transport in the north-western Mediterranean region: Collision risk between ships and whales within the …

An assessment of marine biodiversity protection in the Mediterranean Sea: A threatened global biodiversity hotspot

The Mediterranean Sea is a World’s biodiversity hotspot. It harbours around 11% of all marine species in less than 1% of the global marine area (Bianchi & Morri, 2000). Furthermore, around 20% of those species are endemic (Coll et al., 2010). Nevertheless, Mediterranean  marine biodiversity is under threat by a number of pressures including overfishing, pollution, introduction of alien invasive …

Mediterranean wetlands – their current state and ways to improve their conservation

The recent report entitled “Mapping and assessment of the state of wetland ecosystems: a Mediterranean perspective” led by ETC-UMA, in the frame of the Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community initiative co-funded by the EU Interreg Mediterranean programme, is the result of the collaborative efforts of EU and Mediterranean projects and partners that made available 23 input geo-spatial datasets including the WetMainAreas …

The role of healthy wetlands in fighting climate change

The new report developed by the ETC-UMA (University of Malaga), as partner of the European Topic Centre on Urban, Land and Soil Systems (ETC/ULS) has shed light on the role of healthy wetland habitats in the carbon cycle and the ways European instruments report and consider them. Entitled “Carbon pools and sequestration potential of wetlands in the European Union”, this …

A Mediterranean snapshot on what we have and how to protect it

The report on the State of the Environment and Development in the Mediterranean (SoED) published in November 2020 warns that the Mediterranean basin is facing escalating environmental and developmental challenges: warming 20% faster than other regions, with 78% of fishing stocks subject to overfishing and some 730 estimated tones of plastic waste pollution per day, the call for urgent transformative actions is …

Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services: An EU ecosystem assessment

This report presents an ecosystem assessment covering the total land area of the EU as well as the EU marine regions. The assessment is carried out by Joint Research Centre, European Environment Agency, DG Environment, and the European Topic Centres on Biological Diversity and on Urban, Land and Soil Systems. This report constitutes a knowledge base which can support the …