The director of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, Sonia Castañeda, met with the representatives of Italy and Tunisia at the meeting of the steering committee of the ECOSAFIT project, a meeting in which the development of the objectives of the programme was analysed and in which the future steps to be taken were set. Tunisia is also currently hosting the project’s last oceanographic campaigns and sessions with fishermen are scheduled to be held in Mallorca throughout the month of May.
 
This project, coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation, promotes sustainable artisanal fishing practices and encourages cross-border cooperation between countries on both shores of the Mediterranean, in order to address common challenges and achieve habitat conservation.
 
After 16 months since the launch of the project, this meeting has paid special attention to the analysis of the data collected during the six oceanographic campaigns and the more than 50 studies on board. In addition, the impact of artisanal fishing on benthic communities in the study areas has been evaluated, and they have discussed how to involve fishermen to improve their practices.
 
Among the final actions of this project, the members of the committee have agreed to organize a congress at the end of the year, as well as to make an informative video about the project and a technical publication where the results obtained are collected. Recommendations will also be drawn up and discussed with fishermen’s associations.

The meeting, which was held in Tunis, was also attended by representatives of the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the National Institute of Marine Technology Sciences of Tunisia and the University of Genoa.