The Sala de Piedra of the ULPGC today hosted the presentation of the project which, until Thursday 27 March, will hold coordination meetings between the 11 partners of these island regions included in the INTERREG MAC 2021-2027 Programme
The Sala de Piedra of the institutional headquarters of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) today, Tuesday 25 March, hosted the public presentation of the project 'ECOMARIS: Blue economy and promotion of the sustainability of the coastal and marine environment in islands', an initiative led by the ULPGC, through the University Institute ECOAQUA, as the main partner.
The event brought together representatives of various entities and island regions participating in the project, with the aim of promoting sustainability and the blue economy in the island territories of the INTERREG MAC 2021-2027 Programme. The ECOMARIS project involves all the island regions included in the cooperation area of the aforementioned programme: Canary Islands (Spain), Azores (Portugal), Madeira (Portugal), Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
The Director of Cooperation of the ULPGC, Nasara Cabrera Abu, and the Director of ECOAQUA, Ricardo Haroun, during the presentation of ECOMARIS.
The day began with an institutional welcome by the Director of Cooperation of the ULPGC, Nasara Cabrera Abu. During his speech, he stressed that ‘this European programme has clearly identified the blue economy, specifically sustainable fishing, as one of the most important areas of common interest in strategic sectors between the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores, as well as Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, areas that will be strengthened with this project that is being presented today’.
This was followed by a presentation of the project by the director of the ULPGC's ECOAQUA University Institute, Ricardo Haroun Tabraue, who explained the main objectives of ECOMARIS, the logical working scheme of the project and the expected benefits, highlighting the application of advanced technologies to increase the quantity and quality of spatial data on the coastal and marine environment; the development of decision support systems; and, especially, the promotion of Ocean Culture, in line with the United Nations Decade of the Ocean, whose motto is “The science we need for the ocean we want”.
"With this project, both public administrations and research centres are going to try to improve the management of the marine environment through tools that allow us to know it better, providing scientific support for decision-making. It is therefore a question of obtaining data to find out, for example, whether marine species are decreasing or increasing in population, or whether or not the communities they form are being pressured by human activities and in what way," said Haroun.
The Director of Cooperation of the ULPGC, Nasara Cabrera Abu, and the Director of ECOAQUA, Ricardo Haroun, during the presentation of ECOMARIS.
After this general presentation of the initiative, the different ECOMARIS partners made a brief presentation of their entities, sharing their perspectives and contributions to the project. Afterwards, a question and answer session was opened, where attendees had the opportunity to interact and discuss in depth some key aspects to be developed.
Coordination meeting
After the end of the public event, the coordination meetings of the partners will start, in hybrid format, which will last until next Thursday, 27th March. The meetings will be held at the facilities of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at the Tafira Campus and at the ULPGC's Marine Science and Technology Park in Taliarte.
The representative of one of the partners of the ECOMARIS project briefly presented his organisation to the attention of the Director of Cooperation of the ULPGC, Nasara Cabrera, and the Director of ECOAQUA, Ricardo Haroun.
Objectives
The ECOMARIS project is developed with the support of the INTERREG MAC 2021-2027 Programme, aligned with its priority axis 1. Intelligent MAC, which focuses on improving the competitiveness of companies through an innovative and intelligent economic transformation, in particular, developing and improving research and innovation capacities, and the implementation of advanced technologies.
With the main objective of addressing the strategic needs for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the participating island territories, the specific objectives of the ECOMARIS project include:
Develop and improve research and innovation capacities through the application of advanced technologies to increase the quantity and quality of spatial data of the coastal and marine environment.
Optimise information management processes and decision support tools in the coastal and marine environment with an ecosystem approach.
Promote the development of the blue economy based on informed and sustainable decisions, through the transfer of knowledge and skills to the blue economy sectors and the promotion of Ocean Culture to society as a whole.
Participating entities
The 11 partners participating in the project, for each of the regions, are:
From the Canary Islands, Spain, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, through ECOAQUA; the Cabildo de Fuerteventura; elittoral Estudios de ingeniería costera y oceanográfica SLNE; and Tecnofly Canarias, S.L.
From the Azores, Portugal, the partners are the Secretaria Regional do Mar e das Pescas: Direção Regional das Pescas; and the Direção Regional de Políticas Marítimas.
From Madeira, Portugal, the partners are the Secretaria Regional de Agricultura, Pescas e Ambiente; ARDITI - Agência Regional para o Desenvolvimento da Investigação, Tecnologia e Inovação; and the Universidade da Madeira.
Finally, the partners from third country members of the consortium are: from Cape Verde, the NGO BIOSFERA 1 - Associação para a Defesa do Meio Ambiente; while, from Sao Tome and Principe, the NGO BIOSFERA 1 - Associação para a Defesa do Meio Ambiente,