Redefining wetlands for better protection

Aware of the challenges that climate change and human activities are imposing on Mediterranean wetlands, the ETC-UMA, lead partner in the Interreg Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community, is co-organizing on 22 October 2020 in the framework of the EU Green Week, an online webinar on “Healthy wetlands: Our best natural answer to the biodiversity, water and climate crises”. The purpose of …

COVID-19 – An opportunity for nature and people to reunite in business

Authoritative science [1] agrees that global and regional targets for conserving biodiversity cannot be met by current trajectories; the goals for 2030 and beyond will only be achieved through transformative changes towards sustainability affecting our economic, social, political, and technological realities. As the Global assessment by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) [2] explains ”transformative changes refer …

European Space Agency´s Climate Detectives in Malaga

Welcomed by the European Topic Centre (ETC-UMA) and the Institute of Geomorphology and Soil (IGS) in Malaga, a team of 15 climate detective students from the IES Mayorazgo Secondary School came to the Ada Byron Research facilities of the University of Malaga on 11 March 2020 to find out more about our climate, how to understand it and what can …

Mediterranean biodiversity interactions with marine litter: New knowledge base

ETC-UMA, 17 January 2020, Malaga – As the global production of plastics has grown exponentially since 1960s, huge quantities of marine litter can now be found in our oceans and seas. The Mediterranean Sea is not an exception. Despite the efforts to generate evidence on the quantity and type of litter present on beaches and in the sea – floating …

ETC-UMA contribution to the SOER 2020: How is our landscape mosaic doing?

Featuring the contribution of ETC-UMA as part of ETC-ULS, the European Environment Agency has published today ‘The European environment — state and outlook 2020’ report #SOER2020. Overall environmental trends in Europe have not improved since the last EEA state of the environment report in 2015. The assessment notes that while most of the 2020 targets will not be achieved, especially …

MedBioLitter: an open database on marine litter and biodiversity science

Research efforts on marine litter are increasing our knowledge on the amount, composition and impacts on marine ecosystems, biodiversity and people. However, the number of studies is scattered and geographically unbalanced, making it difficult for policy makers, managers, the business sector and the general public to accurately understand the dimensions of such a modern challenge and the urgency to react. …

Malaga takes the pulse for transformative changes to protect Mediterranean ecosystems

The city of Malaga welcomed, 14-16 October 2019, an international three-days event on Biodiversity protection and management, gathering around 100 Mediterranean representatives to debate on effective collaboration mechanisms for more integrated management of our natural resources. Co-funded by the EU programme Interreg Med and led by the European Topic Centre of the University of Malaga, the PANACeA project has been …

Ecosystem-Based Adaptation: “A pulse for transformative changes in the Mediterranean Sea” (PANACeA Event). 14-16 October 2019, Malaga – Spain

BACKGROUND The Interreg Med Biodiversity Protection Community featured by the PANACeA project is organizing a three-day encounter to share and celebrate the three years of collaborative workachieved by this community to safeguard mechanisms and tools that support a more effective management of biodiversity and ensure proper ecosystem functions across the Mediterranean. The event will include various activities related to the …

Mainstreaming Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Tools into National Initiatives

ETC – UMA and MedCities with the support of the Ministry of Ecological Transition of Spain (MITECO) brought together over 40 key national actors to uptake the results of INTERREG MED Biodiversity Protection Community projects. Periodic and practical face – to – face exchanges are needed to assure coordination of research and management efforts to protect biodiversity at various levels. …

Coordinated policies to safeguard wetland ecosystems urgently needed

Enhanced wetland monitoring, assessment and indicators to support European and global environmental policy is the title of the new report led by ETC-UMA in the framework of the SWOS project, a European Union funded project under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The 2019 report identifies the links between the Horizon 2020 Satellite-based Wetland Observation Service (SWOS) …