The initiative seeks to contribute to the improvement of the conservation status of protected and threatened coastal natural habitats in the Iberian southeast.

The project “Conservation of coastal sandy areas and wetlands in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula” aims to advance in several aspects of the protection and recovery of characteristic and increasingly exceptional habitats of coastal sandy areas in the surroundings of the Mar Menor and some points of the southern coast of Alicante. The results of these advances will serve as an example to administrations and various entities for their development within the framework of protected natural areas and other nearby areas.

The proposal will work on the recovery of coastal sandy areas in the interior and surroundings of protected natural areas on the southeastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, an uncommon practice on the Mediterranean coastal strip.

In addition, the initiative aims to establish a series of criteria that will serve to determine the state of conservation and deterioration of seagrass meadows in lagoon habitats, being the first time that this progress has been achieved.

The activities that will be carried out within the framework of the project range from cultivating endangered and /or endangered plant species in nurseries and their subsequent planting in coastal sandbanks in protected areas, to the elimination of invasive exotic flora, which will be replaced by native species in coastal sandbanks.

Field sampling and laboratory work will also be carried out to define parameters on the conservation status of marine phanerogams. Another aspect of the project is the work of disseminating the natural values of coastal lagoons and sandy areas.