On Tuesday, March 25, the Stone Room of the institutional headquarters of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) hosted the public presentation of the project 'ECOMARIS: Blue Economy and promotion of the sustainability of the coastal and marine environment in islands', an initiative led by the ULPGC, through the University Institute ECOAQUA, as the main partner.
The event brought together representatives of various entities and island regions participating in the project, with the aim of promoting sustainability and the blue economy in the island territories of the INTERREG MAC 2021-2027 Program. The ECOMARIS project involves all the island regions included in the cooperation area of the aforementioned program: Canary Islands (Spain), Azores (Portugal), Madeira (Portugal), Cape Verde, and Sao Tome and Principe.
The day began with an institutional welcome by the Director of Cooperation of the ULPGC, Nasara Cabrera Abu. During her speech, she stressed that "in this European program, the blue economy, specifically sustainable fishing, has been clearly identified as one of the most important areas of common interest in strategic sectors between the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores, as well as Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe, areas that will be strengthened with this project presented today".
This was followed by the presentation of the project by Ricardo Haroun Tabraue, director of the University Institute ECOAQUA of the ULPGC, who explained the main objectives of ECOMARIS, the logical scheme of the project and the expected benefits, highlighting the application of advanced technologies to increase the quantity and quality of spatial data of the coastal and marine environment; the development of decision support systems; and, especially, the promotion of Ocean Culture, aligned with the United Nations Decade of the Ocean, whose motto is 'The science we need for the ocean we want'.
After this general presentation of the initiative, the different partners of ECOMARIS made a brief presentation of their entities, sharing their perspectives and contributions to the project. Afterwards, a round of questions and answers was opened, where the attendees had the opportunity to interact and deepen in some key aspects to be developed.
After the end of the public event, the coordination meetings of the partners began, in hybrid format, extending until Thursday, March 27. The meetings were held at the facilities of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at the Tafira Campus and at the ULPGC Marine Science and Technology Park in Taliarte.
Image 1: Participants during the public presentation of ECOMARIS, in the Sala de Piedra of the ULPGC.
Image 2: Representatives of ECOMARIS partner organizations, at the end of the working sessions in the General Library of the ULPGC and the Marine Science and Technology Park of the ULPGC, in Taliarte.
