The AQUAMED project, which supports the sustainable development of aquaculture in the Mediterranean region, has made significant progress towards its goal of establishing a Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSHP) in the Mediterranean.
On the 21-22 February 2013, an AQUAMED Partnership Meeting took place in Larnaca, Cyprus. All partners from the 13 Mediterranean countries involved in the project participated in the meeting (Algeria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia, and Turkey).
The aim of the meeting was to analyze the results from the AQUAMED 1st Open Multi-Stakeholder Meeting which took place in Rome in November 2012. The Larnaca meeting also focused on the presentation of the main results of the stakeholder survey carried out in the Mediterranean countries involved in the project. The purpose of the survey was to identify the main constraints for developing sustainable aquaculture in the region and to identify the key steps to organize the next Multi-Stakeholder Platform Meeting which will be held on the 20-21 May in Istanbul, Turkey.
“We are very positive about the survey results. More than 100 stakeholders from the majority of the partner countries provided their input and the first analysis of the results has provided information for how we should move forward in terms of research needs and recommendations for aquaculture research in the Mediterranean region,” said Giovanna Marino from the Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA), one of the partners in the AQUAMED project.
AQUAMED\\\'s coordinator, Jean-Paul Blancheton, speaking at the Larnaca meeting, said that the results from the meeting in Rome are crucial for developing the platform: “The feedback provided by the stakeholders during the 1st Open Multi-Stakeholder Meeting will be taken into account to develop the contents for the next Multi-Stakeholder Platform Meeting. The aim is to build a platform that will serve as a tool to help all the Mediterranean stakeholders involved in aquaculture to improve the sector by enhancing collaboration and synergies in the main research topics for the area.”
The AQUAMED 1st Open Multi-Stakeholder Meeting focused on the identification of the research priorities in the Mediterranean aquaculture sector and to explore the potential benefits of setting up a Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSHP). Around 60 stakeholders from the industry, government and research sectors from 13 Mediterranean countries participated in the meeting. The results of the meeting will soon be available on the project website.
