The final event of the Interreg project CASCADE (CoAStal and marine waters integrated monitoring systems for ecosystems proteCtion AnD managemEnt) took place on April 13th, in Lecce at Officine Cantelmo.

During the day various well-known personalities have attended the event: Carlo Salvemini -the mayor of Lecce-, Anna Grazia Maraschio –Councillor for Environment, Waste Cycle and Reclamation, Environmental Supervision, Industrial Risk, Urban Development Planning, Country Planning, Landscape, City Planning, Housing Policy of the Apulia Region-, Luigia Brizzi Head of General affairs service of the Department of Environment, Landscape and Urban Quality of the Apulia Region, Anna Flavia Zuccon - Director of the Italy-Croatia Interreg Managing Authority, Marin Miletić - Project Manager of the Joint Secretariat Interreg V A Italy-Croatia 2014-2020, Valentina De Pinto - CASCADE Project Manager, Alberto Basset - Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento / National Biodiversity Future Centre, Daniela Marić Pfannkuchen - Ruđer Bošković Institute, Nicola Bettoso and Federico Pittaluga - ARPA FVG, Romana Roje Busatto - Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Rita Lecci - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Luana Mia Pirelli - Municipality of Brindisi, Martina Vukašina - County Development Agency, Daniele Brigolin - University of Venice (IUAV), Francesco De Franco - Management Consortium of the Torre Guaceto Nature Reserve.

“The CASCADE project facing topics like the marine biodiversity safeguard, the coastal landscape preservation, the erosion containment – said the mayor of Lecce, Carlo Salvemini during its speech - is important because aims both to strengthen knowledge and raise awareness before to draw the intervention strategy throughout the coastal territories like the one of Lecce. The attention on the sea and its economy, currently growing, should lead us towards a strategic planning to place initiatives that are developing in the sphere of the so-called blue economy, starting from the investment on renewable energies in the sea. We need the Government to carry out a marine environment management plan, together with the local entities. To examine in depth our sea knowledge, evaluate its specific characteristics and plan which activities can take place, where and which one, on the contrary, should not be encouraged. Until we won’t have a strategic planning tool, the risk will be to inflict damage on our coastal landscape."

“In the next ten years – has pointed out Anna Grazia Maraschio, Councillor for Environment, Waste Cycle and Reclamation, Environmental Supervision, Industrial Risk, Urban Development Planning, Country Planning, Landscape, City Planning, Housing Policy of the Apulia Region – we will be called to face a challenge, the one of fully implementing the ambitious goals declined in the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the European Biodiversity Strategy 2030, which expect in Goal number 14 the preservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. For this reason, it will be essential to put in play some actions at the local level, integrated within the European context and choices. The Region's Department of Environment Landscape and Urban Quality has always been at the forefront of the pursuit of environmental goals, representing the highest regional authority on good environmental management practices, both environmental and landscape protection and preservation. Through the Interreg projects such as CASCADE, where the Apulia Region is lead Partner, it is possible to share the knowledge and resources coming from different regions in order to face in common problems, including biodiversity protection, natural habitats restoration, endangered animal and plant species preservation, and locals’ awareness rising on the importance of all of these. It is important to support these projects and keep on working together to ensure a sustainable future for everybody." 

"The CASCADE project - reminded Marine Miletic, Project Manager of the Joint Secretariat Interreg V A Italy-Croatia 2014-2020 – is among the projects funded by the Interreg Italy Croatia 2014-2020 program, under the call for strategic projects, and has a very important relevance for both Italian and Croatian territory. The project, in fact, is part of the program’s Axis III and mainly concerns with the protection of biodiversity and protected areas. The activities of the CASCADE project aim to the definition of extreme events effects on marine ecosystems, the development of methodologies and actions for restoration based on scientific evidence, the development and improvement of monitoring systems, the access to data monitoring through an information system, the implementation of pilot actions aimed at integrated management systems restoration and improvement." 

"These three years of activities - pointed out Valentina De Pinto, CASCADE  Project Manager - allowed us to carry out important monitoring to examine in depth our knowledge of our marine-coastal areas ecosystems and to identify some soft restoration activities to protect endangered species; they have also made it possible to share this issues with the population, through the organization of numerous events and, above all, the cross-border collaboration has fostered an important exchange of knowledge and experiences between the 16 Italian and Croatian partners, which we hope will continue beyond the end of the Project”.

The event closed a series of twelve events, organized by the Apulia Region as Lead Partner. There were seven in person events addressed to schools, which have discovered the beauty and vulnerability of a precious ecosystem by walking through the Torre Guaceto Nature Reserve, one of the pilot areas of the CASCADE Project, they have understood the importance of biodiversity conservation and the devastating effects caused by both human activities and the presence of plastics; and events were addressed to divers as well, who explored the seabed of Torre Guaceto Marine Protected Area in diving excursions among corals, scorpionfish, hermit crabs, octopuses, shrimp, lobsters, starfish, urchins, groupers and moray eels. Awareness raising and dissemination activities also involved citizens, experts, local authorities, and environmental associations in a series of five online events, such as workshops, scientific trainings, and seminars, which allowed a discussion, among specialists and stakeholders, on integrated planning and management actions for marine and coastal areas. The Interreg CASCADE, in the broader strategy of the Apulia Region, has achieved the important result of building and consolidating common intervention procedures to safeguard the sea by encouraging the ongoing collaborations, carrying out training activities, and promoting exchanges of innovative experiences for the preservation of both the sea and its species.