Marine LitterWatch: Engaging citizens to tackle marine litter Constança Belchior – EEA Defishgear Working Group Meeting on Marine Litter Athens 12th May 2014
Marine LitterWatch aims • Help filling data gaps on beach litter for policy implementation (Marine Strategy Framework Directive) and assessments (EEA) • Collaborate with existing communities, as well as provide a setup for new ones to emerge • Explore benefits of involving citizens in collecting and monitoring of marine litter • Support a collective approach to managing marine litter, by engaging with government bodies, industry & citizens
Concept The past The future?
How does it work?
Monitoring vs Clean-up Events MSFD Guidelines 2013
Monitoring events need to follow the MSFD guidelines Communities responsible for adopting monitoring protocol and QA/QC data Capacitation need: communication and training of survey coordinators & managers
Current status Official launch:
Tools: Android version available since Dec 2013 iPhone and iPad version: April 2014 Web interface (for communities): April 2014 Updates and more information: http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/coast_sea/marine-litterwatch
Next steps Connect with communities and promote strategic uptake Foster synergies and knowledge exchange: Policy (MSFD) & EEA Eionet, Experts (MSFD Technical Group Marine Litter), NGO´s, Public Link to EU Clean-up day May 10 for awareness raising
Start collection of data and explore results – learning by doing approach!
Marine LitterWatch http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/coast_sea/marine-litterwatch
Constança Belchior constanca.belchior@eea.europa.eu Malene Bruun malene.bruun@eea.europa.eu Peter Kjeld – technical support Peter.Kjeld@eea.europa.eu