Acronym HARMONY
Category
Fisheries
Title The Italo-Maltese harmonization for a Good Environmental Status: sea floor integrity and interactions with invasive species to preserve the marine ecosystem functioning Programme Interreg V
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source European Coordinator Gianluca Sarà Coordinator email NA
Coordinator institution
UNIPA - University of Palermo (Italy)
Institutions involved
ERA - Environment and Resources Authority (Malta) ,
ISPRA - Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Italy) ,
MESDC - Ministry for Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change (Malta) ,
CNR-IAMC - National Research Council; Institute for Coastal Marine Environment (Italy) ,
NA - Sicilian Region (Italy) ,
Start year 2018 End year 2021 Funding (€) € 1,613,608 Website https://keep.eu/projects/20454/Italo-Maltese-harmonization-EN/ Summary The Harmony project aims at the harmonized production of monitoring and control measures between the two border countries Italy and Malta. Specifically, the project involves the production of actions to jointly investigate: i) the integrity of the seabed, and of the species that inhabit them, and ii) the effects of habitat fragmentation phenomena responsible of facilitating the spread of non-indigenous species (NIS). The integration of those two aspects will lead to a greater understanding of transboundary marine ecosystem functioning. In this regard, responding to what actually required by the set of descriptors and indicators suggested by the Framework Directive (Directive 2008/56/CE of 17th June 2008, specifically D.2 "Non-indigenous species introduced by human activities remain at levels that do not adversely alter the ecosystems" and D.6 "The integrity of the seabed is at a level that ensures that the ecosystem structure and functions are safeguarded and benthic ecosystems, in particular, have not suffered adverse effects") will be developed monitoring interventions and integrated control measures that will have the ultimate aim of suggesting marine ecosystem management measures. The transboundary nature of Italy and Malta, which share the same water body in the central Mediterranean, means that the marine ecosystem management measures and the associated biological resources, as well as social structures and economies should follow common and aligned approaches to avoid future conflicts and the collapse of ecosystem goods and services. Consequently, the actions suggested in HARMONY will specifically converge in proposing uniformity criteria in order to develop common EDRR (Early Detection and Rapid Response) monitoring and control measures (e.g. through the development of high spatio-temporal resolution biomimetic sensors or of monitoring networks based on participatory methods [citizen science]) in order to: i) launch control measures of the alteration caused by alien species and the integrity of the seabed, in sites with high ecological (biodiversity) and therefore socio-economic (Natura 2000 sites) value, ii) align the two countries’ actions, iii) enhancing the effectiveness of the actions of management policies that would arise and iv) create a permanent governance structure for the EDRR cross-border system with a mixed Italian-Maltese composition.
Keywords
Alien species;
Impacts;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
Marine Region Map
