POSEIDONE – Promotion of green and blue infrastructures dedicated to a new environment
Programme: Interreg Italija-Slovenija
Duration of the project: 1. 1. 2023 – 1. 1. 2026
Lead partner: VEGAL (Agenzia di sviluppo del Veneto Orientale)
Partners:
- Region Veneto
- Consortium of Bonifica Veneto Orientale
- Consortium for Coordination of Research Activities concerning the Venice Lagoon System – CORILA
- Municipality of Staranzano –Management body of Isonzo Rivermouth Nature Reserve
- WWF Italy Foundation
- Regional Development Centre Koper
- Public Institute Landscape Park Strunjan
- Bird Watching and Bird Study Association of Slovenia – DOPPS (BirdLife Slovenia)
- Municipality of Ankaran
- Science and Research Centre Koper – ZRS Koper
- Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry of Slovenia Institute of Agriculture and Forestry Nova Gorica
Website of the project: https://www.ita-slo.eu/sl/poseidone
The project is based on the policy of a greener, CO2-free Europe, which includes the protection and conservation of biodiversity and the creation of green and blue infrastructure to combat climate change. The project’s objectives are to implement activities to conserve and promote biodiversity, create green and blue infrastructure and establish tools for sustainable tourism planning and protect the natural and cultural landscape.
The project takes place in the northern Adriatic area between Chioggia and the Slovenian coast. The project has a total budget of 4.375.000,00 €, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Interreg Italy – Slovenia programme of the European Union. The value of the project for Landscape Park Strunjan is 312.000 €.
Activities of the project
As part of the transboundary assessment of the conservation status of selected habitats and species, monitoring activities are carried out in the project area, synchronous with other partners in the northern Adriatic region. The results will serve as a basis for evaluation of their population status and allow further planning of monitoring methodologies. Part of the cross-border cooperation will include education and scientific research on board the sailing vessel “Goletta Verde” or “Green Schooner“. As part of this activity, three summer schools will be organised in order to enable Slovenian and Italian students to aquire knowledge of innovative technologies for monitoring the marine biodiversity.
In order to move towards more sustainable tourism, monitoring of anchored vessels in the park will be carried out and methodologies for evaluating touristic pressures applied, which will allow planning activities in a sustainable way. Since landscape park Strunjan is the longest stretch of natural coastline in the gulf of Trieste and one of the most visited areas on the Slovenian coast, visitor counters will be installed at important hotspots in order to quantify the pressures. An evaluation of main threats to the marine environment will be produced in cooperation with other protected areas in the project region.
Workshops will be organised for children from local schools and various clean-up campaigns with the cooperation of the local NGO-s. In addition, the project will promote better waste management through different awareness-raising campaigns.
A bigger investment in the area of the park will be the renovation of the dry stone house called “kažeta“, which is a characteristic element of the cultural heritage. These stone houses, together with other dry-walled buildings and their surroundings, constitute green infrastructure, playing an important role of providing habitat for many species of flora and fauna, and contributing to the preservation of biodiversity. In cooperation with the Slovenian Chamber of Agriculture and the Koper Scientific Research Centre, activities will be developed to promote the cultivation of indigenous crops and sustainable agriculture, relating to agricultural practices in the park.
Activities carried out in the first two years of the project
So far, two underwater clean-ups, workshops for children, the restoration of an old boathouse and a dry-building workshop have been successfully carried out. Several project meetings have enabled discussions on current issues and the exchange of good practices. During the first two years of the project, data on the occurrence of selected bird species have been collected to provide first results and demonstrate the success of the method implemented. During the summer seasons 2023-2024, data on the number of visitors to the most visited tourist routes, bathers on the seafront and anchored boats within the park were collected. The project includes a reinforced monitoring of compliance with the rules in the marine area.
Short awareness-raising films are being produced in order to raise awareness of the ecosystem services and rich biodiversity of different natural coastal areas. A sustainable development strategy is being developed as a guideline to other protected areas.
Did you know that during the summer season there are over 140 vessels at anchor in the marine part of the park? And that each anchor damages about 1 square metre of seagrass meadows?
More about the project activities: