Marine LitterWatch: Engaging citizens to tackle marine litter

Constança Belchior – EEA Defishgear Working Group Meeting on Marine Litter

Athens 12th May 2014

• 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

Marine LitterWatch aims

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

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!

Next steps

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