Activity category: Human and Aquatic ecosystem
Year: 2023
Type: Awareness raising
Status: Ongoing
Target areas: Greece
Target organisms:
Project website:
Partners
Funders
Activity category: Human and Aquatic ecosystem
Year: 2023
Type: Awareness raising
Status: Ongoing
Target areas: Greece
Target organisms:
Project website:
Partners
Funders
Objectives
The alliance represents the collaborative effort of 11 environmental organisations with the aim to make a significant impact on biodiversity, immediate benefits to species conservation, and long-term survival of some of the most charismatic and ecologically important species in our country. iSea’s main objectives within the alliance are: 1) To reduce the impact of bycatch and illegal trade of shark and ray protected species and 2) to promote and improve existing citizen science tools for monitoring biodiversity, increase the number of citizens involved in biodiversity monitoring and the number of scientists working on citizen science data.
Description
The projects implemented within the Alliance focus on iconic species of the Greek fauna. Their common denominator is their focus on improving policies and strengthening their application, co-creating solutions and reinforcing the voices for nature conservation in the public debate. iSea's contribution to the Alliance's work focuses on reducing bycatch, mislabelling and illegal trade of protected shark and ray species and to increase knowledge of iconic species, especially for lesser known marine ones.
Results
In the context of promoting citizen science, more than 450 scientific and common names of marine species were added or updated, while the conservation status of 441 species was renewed according to the Red Book of Threatened Species of Greece. Six online and 3 in-person workshops were conducted with 996 participants, as well as 6 Bioblitzes with 347 participants. Since the start of the program, there has been a 90% increase in users of the iNaturalist platform and a 64% increase in observations of vulnerable and protected species, such as pen shells (Pinna nobilis, Pinna rudis) and the Mediterranean cushion coral (Cladocora caespitosa)