They may be small and often overlooked, but seagrasses play a role in keeping our oceans healthy. Seagrass meadows create vital habitats for marine life, capture and store carbon, and help stabilise coastlines. Yet, seagrass meadows are disappearing at an alarming rate due to coastal development, pollution, and climate change. Italy hopes to reverse that trend with the ambitious Marine Ecosystem Restoration (MER) Project.
Funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and carried out within the framework of the NextGenerationEU investment projects, the MER Project “is the first of its kind by any country to plan nature restoration measures at country scale in a data-driven and proactive way,” says Dr Pooja Mahapatra, Market Solutions Lead – Climate and Nature, at Fugro.
In Partnership with Compagnia Generale Ripreseaeree (CGR) and subcontractors PlanBlue and EOMAP (which recently became part of Fugro), Fugro will deliver the mapping component of the MER Project.
“This mapping is just the first step of the Italian Marine Ecosystem Restoration Project. The data will help us understand the growth or degradation of seagrass meadows, guiding decisions on which areas to prioritise for conservation and restoration. The ultimate goal is to reverse the decline in seagrass in Italy,” says Mahapatra.
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