Grants

Sea

MAR NOSTRA | Protecting Our Waters

€29,000 awarded

Organisation requesting funding:

GOB MENORCA

Issue of Concern being addressed: Marine conservation/Waste management

Project Overview:

This is a programme designed to contribute to the marine conservation in Menorca using complementary and synergestic approaches to tackle illegal fishing, support boats management, improve marine meadows, awareness raising among the community towards our seas situation and the marine pollution and reduce plastic rubbish from markets and local fiestas.

Project collaborations:

MAR NOSTRA sits within the PROJECT MENORCA a marine protection programme designed by the Menorca Preservation Fund, Blue Marine Foundation and Sunseeker International.

 

General project objective:

Tackling challenging problems and decrease the current concerns in marine environment.

The projects specific objectives are:

Specific objective 1. To promote and support an effective  system to carry out fishing inspections. To achieve that aim, the following activities are being carried out:

 

  • To carry out an annual follow-up of the files being processed as fishing penalties.
  • To hold meetings with relevant institutional responsibles and their respective departments.
  • To spread the information to raise awareness among the public the current situation and the improvements achieved compared to the last year.

 

Specific objective 2. To promote and support a rational organisation of nautical installations. To that aim the following activities are being carried out:

 

  • To analyse the advances and the initial approval process of the Coastal management Plan (zoning) and the sheet of water included in the Menorca’s Insular Territorial Plan revision.
  • Hold strategical meetings with the institutions responsibles, with the planning team in charge of drafting the plan and other related agents.
  • To write up proposals aiming the plan improvement and the awareness raising of the current difficulties.

 

Specific objective 3. To improve the conservation of marine meadows. To that end, the following activities are being carried out:

 

  • Activities to achieve the effective application of the € 200,000 fund the Balearic Government has allocated to improve phanerogams’s current state, as a compensation measure for the Ciutadella harbour construction.
  • Publishing a publication about posidonia targeting visiting families during the summer campaing.
  • Management activities as to get funds for editing the Catalan, Spanish and English version of the children’s story Na Mordala, a crab, which explains the problems the coast faces.
  • Signaling of shallow waters to avoid motorized navigation in the interior of Fornells and Addaia.

 

Specific objective 4. To offer an educational project in favour of the sea. To that aim the following activities are being carried out:

 

  • Improving the offer of early childhood education related to the story of “Na Mordala a crab”. Approximately 20 activities will be carried out developing and including a disguise, audio-visual material of the story, editing the song and adding of models the children can touch (Nacra, star, etc.).
  • Including a day dedicated to the sea in the Summer Colonies the GOB celebrates in Es Pinaret (Ciutadella).

 

Specific objective 5. To address the issue of increasing marine pollution via an awareness raising campaign. To that end, the following activities are being carried out:

 

  • Two plays of the improvisation theatre shows “Plàstic a a la mar” were held to raise awareness about the issue. In “Bar Mirador” and in the Alnitak’s Boat Toftevaag within the Plàstik Brunch Festival de Brunh&Co (28-30 September 2018).k Brunch
  • In the traditional markets of Maó (Claustro del Carmen) and Ciutadella (Plaça del Mercat) to implement a campaign to replace single use plastic bags, used for weighing fresh products, with paper bags.

 

Specific objective 6. To implement the campaign “Campaña 20-bio”: to generate a cultural change regarding the use of single-use plastics (cups, plates, cutlery) and replacing it for biodegradable material in all seafarer local fiestas across the island. To that aim the following activities are being carried out:

 

  • Carry out a awareness-raising work, including personal interviews, to ensure that, at least 20 associations that currently use single-use plastics when they hold seafarers’ parties on a regular basis, enter into agreements to commit them to use, from that moment on, reusable materials or biodegradable cutlery. The signatory associations will receive material lots (plates and cellulose cups with MaterBi cutlery). The objective is that  by 2020 the most representative entities of Menorca have stopped using single-use plastics.

 

Local collaborations:

SO 1. Menorquins per el territori. Youth assosiations.

SO 2. Asociación Menorquina de Empresas náuticas.

SO 3. Gobierno Balear. Dirección General de puertos y aeropuertos. Consejería de territorio, Energía y Movilidad.

SO 4. Educational centres.

SO 5. Bar El Mirador. Asociación de comerciantes del Claustre del Carme, Ayuntamiento de Mao, Alnitak, Cofradía de pescadores de Ciutadella

SO 6. Non-profit organisations in Menorca.  Agreements already signed:

 

 

Overall project: Marilles Foundation.

Programme phases:

This is a one phase programme.

Chronology:

12 months. Starting June 2018.