The municipal councilor sub-delegate for the Protected Marine Area, Aurore Asso, held a conference at the C.U.M regarding the Nice protected marine area project. What is the current status of the project and what will happen in the future?
This Tuesday, March 26, at the Mediterranean University Center, a conference took place to review the Nice protected marine area project. The conference was led by the municipal councilor sub-delegate for the Protected Marine Area, Aurore Asso, who also discussed the future of the project and the next steps to be taken.
The protected marine areas have been in place since the end of last year, although the project was initiated in 2020. The first step was to place “blue boxes” at four corners of the metropolis. These are in a way mailboxes of the sea that collect the pebbles of thoughts from the people of Nice. The citizens’ opinions of the azure capital were thus requested and taken into account. Following this, numerous research endeavors were carried out. It mainly involved cataloging all the marine fauna and flora and identifying areas to protect.
What is the next step?
The objective of this initiative is to adhere to European directives regarding sea protection in order to preserve and improve its condition. All this stems from the numerous COPs that have taken place in recent years, particularly the Convention on Biological Diversity COP and the Climate COPs (the latest being COP 28 in Dubai). The United Nations Sustainable Development program by 2030 has clear targets: reaching 30% of protected areas, with 10% under strong protection by 2030.
Protected marine zones have already been demarcated and measures have been implemented to preserve the condition of the seabeds. For areas that have been degraded, methods to revitalize these areas are currently being applied. Going forward, the researchers aim to explore deeper and further to discover new areas to protect. There are also plans to conduct night observation dives to get acquainted with the sea’s nocturnal fauna and flora.
