Spain, Italy and Tunisia promote responsible fisheries in the Mediterranean basin by means of a cross border cooperation initiative co-financed by the European Union having a budget allocation of 1.9 mill €.

The project, “Towards Ecosystem Conservation and Sustainable Artisanal Fisheries in the Mediterranean Basin (ECOSAFIMED)”, is framed within the European Programme ENPI CBC MED, whose main objective is to strengthen the cooperation between the European Union and the bordering Mediterranean regions.

Within this context, the Spanish Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Environment, through the Biodiversity Foundation, coordinates this initiative which counts with the Institute of Marine Sciences of CSIC, the National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technologies in Tunisia and the University of Genoa as participants.

Since 19th  February, representatives of  the  project partners and of the ENPI Programme have held the first meeting in Barcelona, which has closed today. During this event coordinated by the representatives of the Biodiversity Foundation, the main technical and financial issues for the project implementation have been discussed.

ECOSAFIMED targets the promotion of responsible fisheries practices and the information exchange between scientists and fishermen in order to contribute to the conservation of marine ecosystems.  With this aim, the project will elaborate management guidelines for the Mediterranean fisheries, in order to make fisheries compatible with healthy marine habitats.

The project has a budget of 1.915.883 €, with a European contribution of 1.569.235 € from the ENPI CBC Programme, which means an 81% of the total project costs.

The end of the project is foreseen by 31st  December 2015. Along the implementation, the project will study different marine areas of diverse territories of the Mediterranean Basin. In Spain, the study cases will be areas close to Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. In Italy, the location will be in Lazio and Sicily, whereas in Tunisia the regions of Nabeul, Ariana, Tunis, Bizerte and Jendouba will be included.

Among the foreseen actions, the low effort trawling areas combined with artisanal fisheries in Spain, Italy and Tunisia will be identified. Once they are defined, the impact of these fisheries in the seabed and over the marine ecosystems will be assessed. As a result, recommendations to reduce artisanal fisheries impact over marine habitats will be elaborated. Moreover, the project foresees the identification of ecological valued areas for maintenance and protection.

ECOSAFIMED is one of the 39 projects was selected out of the 1.095 submitted to the second call of the ENPI CBC MED Programme 2007-2013.

PROGRAMA ENPI CBC MED

The European Programme ENPI CBC MED is a crossborder cooperation initiative that is part  of  the  Instrument  belonging  to  the  European  Neighbourhood  Policy. The Programme objective is to promote the cooperation among the regions located in both shores of the Mediterranean basin to face common challenges and to valorize endogenous potentialities.

A total number of 14 countries are the Programme beneficiaries, which represent 76 territories and around 110 millions of inhabitants: Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, The Palestinian Authority, Portugal, Spain, Syria and Tunisia.

The Programme has a budget of 200 millions, coming from the European Neighbourhood Policy and the maximum allocation per project is 90% of the total costs.
 
The projects funded are related to different topics related to the promotion of the socio- economic and territorial development, by means of the support to the innovation, the research; the sustainable development   and the energy efficiency in all the Mediterranean basin; the improvement of the conditions and modalities of circulation of people, goods and capitals or the promotion of the dialogue between cultures and governance.

Further information on the Programme and ECOSAFIMED Project will be available at the ENPI CBC MED Programme website http://www.enpicbcmed.eu

This publication has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union under the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of Biodiversity Foundation and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union or of the Programme’s management structures.