The Background
Seagrass meadows play a very important role from an ecological, sedimentary and economic point of view. They produce more organic matter than the tropical forests and more than 10 l oxygen per m2 per day. Being at the base of many food chains and shelter for several hundreds of animal and plant species, they are of great importance for the maintenance of biological diversity and represent an invaluable economic source.
However, seagrass meadows are in regression because they are subjected to many pressures: littoral constructions, urban and industrial pollution, mechanical destruction and eutrophication of the marine ecosystems resulting from dumping from aquaculture, agriculture and urban activities. They require a sustainable management, which implies a good knowledge of their characteristics, sites, size, state of conservation and the pressures to which they are exposed.
The Project
Following the recommendation of the 14th Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention to establish inventories, cartography and monitoring networks of seagrass meadows, RAC/SPA developed the MedPosidonia Project for four Mediterranean countries having vast Posidonia meadows on their coasts.
Le projet vise essentiellement la collecte d’informations sur la présence et l’évolution des herbiers de posidonie dans des sites sélectionnés afin de permettre aux pays concernés d’élaborer/ajuster leurs programmes de conservation et de gestion durable de la biodiversité. Il constitue une première phase pilote qui sera étendue à d’autres régions.
This project was developed thanks to financial support from the Total Foundation and the contributions of RAC/SPA and the four participating countries (Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Turkey). Its total cost is of about 340 000 EUR, with a contribution of 60 % from Total Corporate Foundation, 20 % from RAC/SPA and 20% (in kind contribution) from the beneficiary countries. The project implementation duration was 3 years, from June 2006 to June 2009.
The MedPosidonia Project proceeded following four axes of activities:
- Activity 1 : Make an inventory and characterization of Posidonia meadows.
- Activity 2 : Mapping of the selected Posidonia meadows.
- Activity 3 : Enhance meadow monitoring networks.
- Activity 4 : Communicate about the Posidonia ecosystem and the results of the project.
The Achievements of the project
Activity 1: To carry out an inventory and a characterization of the Posidonia meadows:
This action related only to Libya for which very little information was available before the project as regards the presence and the distribution of seagrass meadows. Several field missions were organized to the selected sites: Island of Ghrara, sites in the area of Tripoli, Farwa and Ain Al-Ghazala. Thus the seagrass meadows of the sites were identified and characterized. A partial cartography of the seagrass meadows was carried out on several sites in the area of Tripoli and in the Ain Al-Ghazala Lagoon.
Activity 2: To map the selected seagrass meadows:
The national structures responsible for coastal development and management need to know the distribution of the seagrass meadows to be able to reduce as much as possible the impacts on the latter. This is why the cartography constituted the second axis of project activities.
Initially dialogues with the national authorities of the three countries involved in this activity (Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey) made it possible to identify the actions to be carried out and the sites to be mapped out. Thus a national training as regards cartography by satellite and aerial images processing was carried out in February 2009 in Algeria, including practical works in the Anse de Kouali (Wilaya of Tipaza) site. Furthermore, sectors of three sites were mapped: at Sidi Ali El Mekki (Tunisia), in the bay of Monastir (Tunisia) and in the bay of Yildizkoy on the Gökçeada Island (Turkey).
Activity 3: To reinforce the monitoring networks:
This activity allowed to set up or to reinforce the seagrass meadow monitoring systems in three countries (Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey). Resulting from preliminary contacts with the national authorities of the three countries, seven sites were selected for beaconing of the higher/lower limit of the seagrass meadows. In fact, the follow-up of the limits of the seagrass meadows produces important information on the general quality of the coastal waters and allows apprehending the impacts of certain human activities.
The beaconing was carried out in Tunisia at Sidi Al El Mekki, Kerkennah and Hergla and in the bay of Monastir and in Turkey at Mersin and in the bay of Yildizkoy. As regards the activities of the Project in Algeria, the only mission in the area of El Kala did not allow to set up the beaconing due to very bad weather conditions.
Activity 4: To communicate on the Posidonia ecosystem and the results of the Project:
The valorization and the communication of the results achieved within the framework of the Project were an important chapter of this project, which was declined according to three axes:
- Training and development of national and regional capacities,
- Communication and awareness raising on the MedPosidonia Project among the wider public,
- Dissemination and publication of the results of the Project among the scientific community.
Three principal training courses were organized during the project:
- Mediterranean Training on the cartography of seagrass meadows (15-21 June 2007 - Tabarka in Tunisia),
- Regional training session on the monitoring of Posidonia meadows (29 October-2 November 2007 - Rafraf in Tunisia),
- National training session on mapping techniques for seagrass meadows (16-19 February 2009 - Algiers in Algeria).
The communication on the interest and the approaches of the MedPosidonia Project took place on several occasions and within the framework of certain events and meetings, in particular during the signing ceremony of the convention between RAC/SPA and the Total Corporate Foundation (October 30th, 2006 in Tunis in Tunisia), the Third Mediterranean Symposium on marine vegetation (March 27th-29th, 2007 - Marseilles in France), the final project meeting (April the 23rd, 2009 - Tunis in Tunisia) and the Ninth Meeting of the National Focal Points for the Specially Protected Areas (June the 3rd, 2009 - Floriana in Malta).
Several communication supports were published as for example a series of five posters, as well as a booklet and a DVD on the results of the project. At national level a leaflet on the interest and importance of seagrass meadows was produced according to specificities of the countries participating in the project.
In August 2009 the Final Activities Report of the MedPosidonia Project was issued (in French).
The Partners and Contributors
In addition to the participation of the institutional Focal Points, many partners and contributors have supported the implementation of the MedPosidonia Project:
- Ministère de l’Aménagement du Territoire, de l’Environnement et du Tourisme (MATET, Algeria)
- Conservatoire National des Formations à l’Environnement (CNFE, Algeria)
- Club Scientifique de Plongée de Constantine (CSPC, Algeria)
- Environment General Authority (EGA, Libya)
- Agence de Protection et d’Aménagement du Littoral (APAL, Tunisia)
- Institut National des Sciences et Technologies de la Mer (INSTM, Tunisia)
- Ministry of Environment and Forestry - General Directorate of Nature Conservation & National Parks (Turkey)
- Istanbul University - Fisheries Faculty (Turkey)
- Middle East Technical University - Institute of Marine Sciences (Turkey)
- Université de Corse « Pascal Paoli » - Equipe Ecosystèmes Littoraux (EqEL, France)
- Université Tunis El-Manar - Faculté des Sciences de Tunis (FST, Tunisia)
- NAUTILUS Cooperative Society (Italy)
- OKIANOS Environmental Expertise and Training (Tunisia)
- SUBEX Underwater Surveys (Tunisia)
- Bizerte Marine (Tunisia)
Outlook
As mentioned before, the MedPosidonia Project constitutes a first pilot phase which should be extended to other sites and other countries in the future. On occasion of the Ninth Meeting of the National Focal Points for the Specially Protected Areas in 2009 several representatives from non-participating countries in the MedPosidonia Project expressed the wish to be associated to possible future phases of the project.
Given the results already obtained within the framework of the Project, RAC/SPA, as a regional instrument for the conservation of marine biodiversity must guide and accompany the countries in the follow-up of this project: for example as regards the maintenance of the monitoring systems, or the distribution of the communication materials among the local actors.
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