The Mediterranean Basin is one of the world’s largest semi-enclosed seas with an extensive coastline, spreading across three continents. For millennia, the Mediterranean Sea has been a major crossroad and has been providing its peoples with food, livelihood and well-being. Nowadays, the Mediterranean community faces a number of challenges like urban and tourism growth in coastal areas, rising sectoral competition amongst shipping and maritime transport, offshore energy development and mismanagement of fisheries and aquaculture, to name a few. These, often, unsustainable human activities threaten the impressive variety of landscapes and seascapes, lead to the over-exploitation of resources, the loss of cultural and biological diversity and compromise the present and future quality of life of its inhabitants.
What are the threats, challenges and opportunities for Mediterranean marinescapes and coastal landscapes now and in the future? How can complex social, economic and environmental interactions be integrated into effective policies promoting the sustainable development of these unique areas? How can cross-sectoral collaboration and citizen involvement be strengthened in order to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of coastal and marinescape planning and management in the Mediterranean?
This year’s Marinescape Forum which will take place in Piraeus on the 26th and 27th May 2015 will attempt to answer these and many other questions by fostering a dialogue between regional and national, civil and institutional stakeholders from Europe and the Mediterranean. Using the European Landscape Convention and its prescribed methods of participatory landscape governance as a starting point, the discussions will focus on the development of a Blue Growth Strategy that integrates issues of cultural heritage and sustainable natural resource management as well as the needs and aspirations of local societies. The presentations and discussions will highlight the importance of public participation and the meaningful involvement of civil society in all decision making processes as well as explore ways for the development of strong community building across the Mediterranean Basin. A solid contribution will be made to the challenge faced by societies and policy makers across the Mediterranean, namely how to ensure ecological and cultural resilience, in an era of constant change, so as to facilitate the sustainable use of marine and coastal landscapes and their resources.
The Marinescapes Forum in Piraeus is the second of a series of Marinescape Forums organised by CIVILSCAPE. This year it is co-organised with the Mediterranean Institute for nature and Anthropos (Med-INA) on the occasion of the European Maritime Days which will be held in Piraeus on the 28th and 29th May, as a way of bringing attention to need for action in order to preserve the character of Mediterranean marinescapes and coastal landscapes, as defined by the affected communities. The Forum is expected to conclude with the Piraeus Statement on Mediterranean Marinescapes which will set out the needs and the principles for sustainable management and planning of Mediterranean Marinescapes, coastal landscapes and islandscapes, and will consider the establishment of the Mediterranean Marinescapes Observatory.
You can have a look at the agenda of the Marinescape Forum – many interesting presentations and speakers from all over the Mediterranean and beyond are included!! For more information please contant Alexis Katsaros (alexis@med-ina.org).
We are at your disposal should you need more information!
We look forward to welcome you in Piraeus!
INFO AT A GLANCE
When: 26-27 May 2015
Where: Yacht Club of Greece, Koumoundourou Hill, Microlimano, Piraeus
Registration: Send us the registration form until the 22nd May
More information: Mr Alexis Katsaros, alexis@med-ina.org
Websites: www. civilscape.eu, www.med-ina.org
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