MPA-Adapt

The Mediterranean Sea climate will undergo rapid changes over the next decades. Direct evidence of climate change is already being observed in the Mediterranean coast and in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The need to understand and work towards building resilience for both coastal communities and marine biodiversity, through adaptive management, have become an essential element for mitigation against and adaptation to the rapid changes to maintain and protect healthy ecosystems in the MPAs. Unfortunately, climate change is not explicitly incorporated in most management plans and information to assist MPAs decision making is limited and fragmented.

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation into Mediterranean MPAs contributes to the efforts being made across the region to improve adaption to change in the coastal zones.

Main objective

MPA-ADAPT’s goals are to develop collaborative and site-specific adaptation plans for MPAs that enhance their resilience to climate change impacts. This will be achieved through capacity building workshops for an effective management, development of risk assessments and an investigation of the potential actions and priorities needed to ensure the adaptability and the resilience of biodiversity and local communities, including fishermen and other stakeholders.

It also aims to incorporate climate change vulnerability assessments and nature-based adaptation planning into their existing management frameworks, and provide guidance to MPAs managers and local stakeholders to implement and test climate change adaptation approaches.

Specific objectives

1. To raise awareness of the role of effective MPAs for enhancing resilience to Climate change and safeguarding ecosystem services as well as contributing to adaptation measures.

2. To strengthen capacity of MPAs to plan for and respond to climate change impacts based on a better understanding of climate risk and vulnerability.

3. To showcase how climate change can be integrated into planning and management of Mediterranean MPAs.

Budget
1,904,257.06 € (85% co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund)

Duration
From November 2016 until May 2019