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Project

Future trends of Blue Growth in the Mediterranean Sea (MEDTRENDS)

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Description:

The Mediterranean Sea is increasingly exploited by a range of maritime activities, all of which are predicted to expand substantially over the next 20 years, as: wind farms, oil extraction, cables, shipping routes, fisheries and other human activities including tourism. This expansion will result in: (i) increased demand for limited space and marine resources, (ii) increased conflict between maritime sectors, and (iii) increased conflict between human use and nature. Moreover, in conjunction with climate change, the expected growth of the use of maritime space poses a considerable threat to the health of already-stressed Mediterranean ecosystems.
The MEDTRENDS project is inspired by WWF’s 2010 report “Future trends in the Baltic Sea”, which highlights the substantial growth trend expected in the Baltic region over the next 20 years, showing how the Baltic sea governance framework is clearly ill-equipped to meet oncoming challenges. Applying this approach to the Mediterranean basin, MEDTRENDS collected data and mapped integrated scenarios of maritime economy growth at transnational level in 8 EU Med countries over the next 15 - 20 years. An overall analysis of growth trends and potential cumulative impacts of human activities at sea was carried out in the particular context of the 10% marine protected areas target set for the Mediterranean and the good environmental status objective set by the MSFD.
Considered sectors include: wind energy, shipping, ports, oil and gas exploration and extraction, pipelines and cables, coastal development, sand and gravel extraction, military activity, industrial pollution, tourism and recreation, commercial fishing, aquaculture, agricultural runoff, climate change, coastal chemical plants, desalinization plants. A transnational report outlining scenarios for the future development of the various sectors was produced by the Lead Partner. On that basis, national summary reports have been also produced by partners.

Project information

Lead

WWF France (FR)

Partners

WWF Mediterranean in partnership with WWF Italy (IT), WWF Greece (GR), WWF Spain (ES), Nature Trust Malta (MT), WWF Baltic Programme, Blue Plan, MedPan Association.

Source of funding

MED Programme

Published in Climate-ADAPT Jun 07 2016   -   Last Modified in Climate-ADAPT Dec 12 2023

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