Mare Nostrum's Conference to Focus on Cross-border Coastal Zone Management

ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece, February 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --



The EU-funded Mare Nostrum Project will hold a partners' meeting in Alexandroupolis, Greece, which will focus on cross-border issues regarding integrated coastal-zone management (ICZM).

Participants at the conference, which will take place February 18-22, 2014, will present a series of case studies exploring cross-border cooperation. The presentations will be given by Mare Nostrum partners and associates from Greece, Spain, Malta, Turkey, Israel and Jordan. A special guest presentation by Prof. Nicole Gurran will focus on the policies adopted in Australia.

Mare Nostrum has also invited NGOs from partner countries to take part in a discussion on their role in managing coastal development.

In an attempt to learn more on the issue and how it is working "on the ground," participants will take field trips to the cities of Kavala in Greece and Ainos (Enez), Turkey, to meet with local authorities, NGOs and other stakeholders. They will also visit the delta of the Evros/Meriç River, which forms the border between Greece and Turkey.

"The meeting in Alexandroupolis will deal with ways to bridge the legal-institutional gap in neighboring countries in relation to coastal management," said The Technion's Prof. Rachelle Alterman, initiator and head of the Mare Nostrum Project. "The field trip will provide us with an excellent opportunity to see how cross-border cooperation works in reality in neighboring countries such as Greece and Turkey."

Mare Nostrum recently published its first interim report, entitled "Existing Knowledge on Legal-Institutional Frameworks for Coastline Management. The International, EU and National Levels."

The report, which reviews key international ICZM instruments focusing on the Barcelona Convention's 2008 ICZM Protocol for the Mediterranean, may be downloaded from the project's Web site.

About Mare Nostrum

Mare Nostrum is an EU-funded project which aims to explore new ways of protecting and managing the Mediterranean coastline within the existing ICZM Mediterranean framework.

The project focuses on understanding the "implementation gap" between the Barcelona Convention's high expectations and realities on the ground, and on new legal and institutional tools to improve local practices from the "bottom-up," one level at a time.

For further information, please visit http://www.marenostrumproject.eu. For news and updates, please follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Contact:

Dan Gerstenfeld
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+972-52-3745989

SOURCE Mare Nostrum