COMMON project: First Advisory Board Meeting

The first Advisory Board meeting of the COMMON project takes place online on September 21. An opportunity to meet and discuss the issues addressed by the project with external experts, chosen specifically to monitor the progress of the project and to advise partners on the ecosystem approach, integrated coastal zone management plans (ICZM), the management of marine litter.

The meeting took place in the presence of the entire COMMON project partnership and all the new members of the Advisory Board, involving Roberto Giancreco, from Ministry of the Environment and Land and Sea Protection (MATTM), Alessandra Sensi from Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat (UfM), Jérome Cachot from University of Bordeaux, Lobna Ben Nakhla from Specially Protected Areas Regional Activity Centre (SPA/RAC), Andrea Barbanti from Italian National Research Council (ISMAR-CNR), Kamal Saleem from Lebanese University and Jalal H. Tabel, from the department of Environment and Public Health of Al Kharayeb Municipality.

Thanks to the meeting it was possible to present the project and the main outputs realized, so as to create a moment of discussion on the next steps and on the implementation of the project results. Furthermore, the members of the Advisory Board have been chosen to make it easier to capitalize on the project’s results, will monitor technical and scientific activities and will provide suggestions, monitoring and evaluation of progress, as well as support for dissemination and involvement of interested parties.

The external members will focus on improving knowledge of waste sources and impact on marine ecosystems in 5 pilot coastal areas, strengthening institutional capacities to address marine litter during ICZM plan, building permanent stakeholder forums for participatory ICZM plans for marine litter.

In order to have an independent coordination and evaluation of the project results, the AB members will also be responsible for the transversal technical-scientific monitoring activities.