FISHMPABlue2 - Fisheries and Marine Protected Areas, A Partnership for Sustainability in the Mediterranean

The FishMPABlue2 project is the follow-up of the FishMPABlue project (July 2014-June 2015) funded by Interreg MED Programme. FishMPABlue carried out an analysis of the management of small scale fishery (SSF) within and around a set of Mediterranean MPAs, and developed a “regional-based governance toolkit” to strengthen MPA management capacity of SS.

The FishMPABlue2 Project aims to test this toolkit to demonstrate its effectiveness on the field in 11 Pilot MPAs located in 6 Med countries (Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Greece), to assess and quantify its effectiveness in achieving expected results in terms of MPA ecological effectiveness, benefits delivered to small scale fisheries and social acceptance of management measures by stakeholders.

In the first phase of the project, testing was carried out by engaging MPA management bodies and local small scale fishermen, through the establishment of a “Local Governance Cluster – LGC”, in the selection of the set of governance tools to be implemented in each Pilot MPA.

Identified governance tools were then implemented in each pilot MPA by the LGC, under the coordination of the MPA managing body and with the “coaching” of the relevant project partner. In this phase, scientific monitoring was carried out both before implementing the governance tools (“before phase”) and after its implementation (“after phase”), by UNS + Consima and the MPA managing body, in order to measure the ecological, economic and social status of the MPA and the potential effect of the governance tools.

In a last phase, testing results were transferred and discussed among all the LGCs of the pilot MPAs, to upgrade the tested “governance toolkit”. This will allow the project partnership to prepare a new version of the “governance toolkit” and to disseminate it towards other MPAs in the Mediterranean.

In parallel, a "know-how" exchange activity involving the 11 pilot MPAs was carried out, in order to capitalize, exchange and transfer the results of the individual implementation, featured in communication tools (thematic brochures for example) and of several cross-fertilization formats (3 exchange visits, 1 training course, 1 experience exchange conference, dissemination at national level events, online platform) where the partners will be able to share common challenges and solutions.

Project partners

• Federparchi
• MedPAN
• CoNISMa
• WWF Adria
• University of Nice Sophia Antipolis
• WWF Mediterranean
• IUCN Mediterranean
• APAM