Press release
6 June 2025
Like all seas and oceans on the planet, the Black Sea is under intense pressure from human activities, and its valuable ecosystems need protection. To have any chance of stopping the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, scientists agree that we need to protect at least 30% of the Earth’s land, waters, and oceans by 2030. Currently, however, only around 17% of land and 8% of marine areas are under some form of protection.
The conservation of marine ecosystems and biodiversity in the Black Sea is the ultimate goal of the project Open environmental eFolio for joint maritime spatial planning and conservation of the valuable Black Sea Basin marine ecosystems (MARMAPS), https://marmaps.bsnn.org/. The project is supported by the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme 2021–2027. It involves the Black Sea NGO Network in Bulgaria, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, NGO Mare Nostrum in Romania and the Black Sea Branch of the Ukrainian Ecological Academy of Sciences in Ukraine.
A focus of the partners’ efforts is the potential for establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) and networks of MPAs not only at national but also at transboundary level. MPAs are seen as essential tools to protect marine biodiversity, ecosystems, and the services they provide. They help to conserve marine life, prevent overfishing, reduce pollution and mitigate the effects of climate change.
The environmental eFolio, created by all partners, offers a solution to achieve national and regional objectives for conserving Black Sea marine ecosystems and using their resources in a cost-effective and sustainable way. It takes into account the cumulative impacts of human activities and climate risks. The eFolio comprises a decision support system, monitoring protocol templates, citizen science tools, and best practices for managing marine protected areas.
The decision support system is primarily intended for stakeholders from administrations, environmental agencies, state and local authorities responsible for spatial planning and the management and protection of water and marine resources. Built by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki using open access datasets on biotic and abiotic factors, and additional information from Black Sea partner projects, it contains key information on the presence and distribution of species and habitats in the Black Sea.
Scientists have used numerical modelling tools taking into account multiple factors, including pressure from human activities, to create maps of the current and expected future distribution of species in the Black Sea basin. Spatial prioritisation tools have been applied to identify locations suitable for new MPAs.
The university partners have employed state-of-the-art methods in conservation planning and environmental protection, including both protection and proactive restoration initiatives. They have implemented the most current recommendations for advancing marine conservation, and analysed the ecological and socio-economic aspects of MPA conservation target-setting criteria.
The research team has developed scenario maps that lead to various operational objectives and planning options for the new MPAs. This process involves integrating biodiversity and socio-economic data layers into the prioritisation schemes. All of the generated alternatives consider planning solutions that meet the EU Biodiversity Strategy target calling for 30% protected area with 10% of strictly protected area by 2030.
In addition to the decision support tool, the partners from the Black Sea countries have provided a selection of information on MPA management of coming from a review of world experience and practices. Expected outcomes of the project also include establishing a mechanism for exchange and long-term support between members of target groups and end-users to promote biodiversity and nature conservation in the Black Sea, as well as improved capacity for planning, monitoring, reporting and management of MPAs.
Thus, the MARMAPS project contributes to its aim to improve knowledge on the conservation of the valuable ecosystems of the Black Sea through digital tools for collaborative maritime spatial planning and the restoration of marine biodiversity. The duration of the project is 18 months and its total budget is 498 358 euro.
