Early this year, on January 28, MPA Europe joined efforts with MEDIGREEN, a new European Maritime, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) project, to host a key stakeholder workshop to foster collaboration in shared areas of interest supporting the European Green Deal (EGD) transition and science-based networks of marine protected areas (MPAs) through maritime spatial planning (MSP) in the unique environment of the Mediterranean Sea. Held at the Real Jardin Botanico in Madrid, Spain, the hybrid event brought together 64 people, both online and in-person, from European Commission representatives to national authorities, regional organisations, non-profit organisations, enterprises, and scientific research institutes.

The workshop provided MPA Europe partners the opportunity to present the project’s goals, scientific approach to identifying networks of MPAs, and results to date, and to ask stakeholders to consider how the project’s results can be used for supporting climate-smart MSP at the national, transboundary, and regional levels, as well as the expansion of the MPAs network in the region. During the workshop, a live demonstration of MPA Europe’s species distribution models app (https://shiny.obis.org/distmaps/) was also carried out, and stakeholders were invited to propose possible use cases for the project’s results.

The major outcomes from the workshop are summarized in a newly released report, which covers the detailed key points raised during the sessions. This report is now available on the Resources section of our website dedicated to stakeholder workshops.

We encourage all interested parties, whether you’re a policymaker, researcher, or marine conservation advocate, to download the full report. Your engagement is crucial as we continue to develop and implement strategies that support the health and sustainability of our marine environments.