ACTION E.3: Organization of Scientific Workshops on Mediterranean Coastal Ecosystems and final guidelines

The Project aims to disseminate its restoration, conservation, and management solutions to other geographical, ecological and socio-economic contexts, targeting a broad spectrum of stakeholders from EU and non-EU countries. An important part of this commitment will coincide with the organisation of a series of scientific workshops. In total, four (4) international meetings will be held, in Italy (#2), Croatia and Greece.

A preliminary contribution to and from stakeholders will be provided in digital form and by videoconferences (E6). Project stakeholders will have the opportunity to fill up a tailor-made sheet where experiences and know-how consolidated during the implementation of their LIFE and non-LIFE projects will be shared.

In the first workshop, which will be held in Italy by the end of 2021, preliminary results, experiences and outcomes achieved by LIFE and non-LIFE Projects will be shared and disseminated. Methodologies and results will be presented by different stakeholders selected among those involved in nature conservation and management, including Competent Authorities of Natura 2000 sites and NGOs. In this event, LIFE PRIMED will also disseminate the main features of the Project, receiving comments and feedback from participants to better support the implementation of the actions. A roadmap will also be drafted during the meeting to plan the following synergy and networking activities. The aims of the first meeting are:

• to collect and share good practices on the restoration of Mediterranean habitats targeted by the Project, and tips for the replication in other environmental contexts;
• to share the preliminary outcomes of the Project;
• to plan further dissemination and data exchange;
• to analyse common issues and conflicts.

Two more international workshops will be organised during the 4th and 5th year of the Project. A second one will be organised in Rome in the facilities of Sapienza University. The other one will be organised in Croatia in cooperation with local stakeholders. In these workshops, international participants will be invited from various surroundings countries (Slovenia, Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, etc.).

The final workshop is planned for 2023 in Greece, to disseminate, together with the stakeholders involved during the Project, results, monitoring methods, approaches for the restoration, conservation and management of the Mediterranean coastal ecosystems. It will be held in three languages: Greek, Italian and English, and it will involve stakeholders from Balkan areas dealing with Natura 2000 management. Consequently, a good practices manual will be prepared to collect all the contributions and to facilitate the replication of the Project's solutions in areas with similar ecosystem conditions and disturbances. The manual will include the workshop proceedings, the final reports of the Actions, analytical elaborations, and the results derived from at least two scientific papers published on international scientific journals. It aims at providing a technical-scientific reference for institutions and associations interested in gathering detailed information of the Project and in replicating its approaches and methods.

The proceedings of the final workshop, as well as the digital version of the good-practices manual, will be available for download on the project website. The manual will be also printed on certified paper (150 copies).

The quantitative expected impact of the Action is:

• 320 people involved (80 for each workshop);
• 1,600 people involved through the dissemination of scientific and technical results.

Additionally, to increase dissemination, the project team will also present the project findings through accredited scientific journals, with at least five publications over the duration of the Project, starting in the 4th year.

Beneficiary responsible for implementation:

HSPN coordinates the Action through a Communication expert in charge of organising the workshop and collecting the information for the preparation of the conference proceedings and the good-practices manual. DEB also employs a Researcher to draft the scientific papers and to present at the workshops the findings related to the hydraulic system developed by the Project.