A Spring Breakthrough for the Mediterranean island wetlands project (MedIsWet)

Based on the experience acquired in the project “Conservation of the island wetlands of Greece” (2004-2013), implemented by WWF Greece and thanks to the support of the MAVA Foundation, the Mediterranean Island Wetlands project (MedIsWet) aspires to establish a network of NGOs, institutes, universities and public authorities.

The project includes actions for the completion of the inventories of all the Mediterranean island wetlands, dissemination of knowledge and promotion of certain conservation measures in local, national and Mediterranean scale.

Recent developments with MedIsWet

 

Spain, Cyprus and Greece have completed their databases of island wetlands. In all other countries the work is still in progress, and most of them are expected to be published in September 2019.

 

 

Following the training sessions in Croatia, Malta, Sardinia, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey, the MedIsWetCoordinator visited the national partners in Sicily (CUTGANA/University of Catania) and Corsica (PIM). The purpose of these workshops was to train the national partners on the same methodologies and tools, thus ensuring a similar approach in all the Mediterranean islands.

 

Marais Albucettu, Corsica. Photo by Thanos Giannakakis/WWF Greece

 

Field visits to wetlands

During spring months, 330 wetland sites were visited as part of the programme: 15 in Croatia, 51 in France, 174 in Italy (142 in Sardinia and 32 in Sicily), 44 in Malta, 21 in Tunisia and 25 in Turkey. The field visits have been completed in Malta, Tunisia and Turkey, while in Croatia the inventory should have been completed in June 2019.

 

Lella Hadhria, Djerba island , Tunisia. Photo by Khouloud Ben Charfi/WWF North Africa

 

Public events

Terra Cypria and the European University Cyprus organised an event in May to celebrate International Biodiversity Day. During the event, numerous environmental activities related to wetlands were conducted with the participation of more than 500 people. Terra Cypria also organised, from 31 May to 14 June, a photo exhibition at the Parliament of Cyprus to share the message with the Members of Parliament, thus maximizing the efforts for better protection of the Cypriot wetlands. Following this event, many meetings with officials took place.

 

Celebration of International day for Biological Diversity in Cyprus. Photo by Terra Cypria.

 

WWF Adria organised an exhibition tour on five Croatian islands in April (Pag, Rab and Krk islands) and in May (Pašman and Murter islands), promoting the values and importance of these wetlands. In total, more than 500 citizens and students from schools visited the exhibitions and had the chance to learn more about their island wetlands.

 

Mobile exhibition in 5 Croatian islands. Photo WWF Adria

 

In March 2019, WWF Spain, SEO/Birdlife, and Ecoembes have organised a cleaning activity in the Estany des Ponts wetlands in Mallorca. The 27 volunteers removed 250 kg of garbage (mainly plastics).

 

Cleaning the Estany des Ponts, Mallorca. Photo by Carlota ViadaWWF Spain

 

On 4-7 June 2019, the meeting of the MAVA Steering Committee on action plan M3-coastal wetlands was organised in Ulcinj, Montenegro. During this workshop, all M3 MAVA Strategy partners had the opportunity to present the progress of their projects.

Policy and advocacy

  • WWF Adria has prepared in English and Croatian a technical report on the “Legal analysis of the conservation status of island wetlands in Croatian legislation and its implementation”. Following this report, new actions for promoting the protection of the Croatian island wetlands will be implemented.
  • The Initiative PIM has prepared a “A Strategy for NGOs to advocate for island wetland conservation“, for France and Italy.
  • In Tunisia, WWF North Africa reported that a meeting was organised at the General Direction of Forestry (DGF) in order to discuss the first draft of the National Wetlands’ Strategy.

Progress with inventories

Terra Cypria has completed one of the deliverables of the project: the inventory report. This technical report provides brief but concentrated information on the work implemented by MedIswet and its predecessor “’Inventory of Cyprus Wetlands’’.

 

More information

Visit the website of MedIsWet

Read the MedIsWet newsletter of the spring 2019

 

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Contact

Thanos Giannakakis

MedIsWet project coordinator, WWF Greece

t.giannakakis@wwf.gr