The MEDCOAST jubilee workshop

A PAP/RAC representative attended the MEDCOAST JUBILEE WORKSHOP for celebrating the 25th anniversary of the MEDCOAST. The workshop was organised in Sarigerme, Turkey, on May 27-30, 2015.

MEDCOAST was initiated as a Euro-Mediterranean Network of Academic and Professional Institutions in 1990 with the aim of providing the support of the scientific community for developing and enhancing integrated coastal management practices in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea countries. When MEDCOAST organized the First International Conference on the Mediterranean Coastal Environment in 1993, it was one of the first conferences of its kind in the whole world. Since then, MEDCOAST has been organizing international scientific conferences biannually, in the months of October or November. Eleven events of this conference series and other scientific meetings organised with the acronym of MEDCOAST over 21 years produced 32 volumes of proceedings that add up to the total of 18,600 pages. The proceedings, which will be made available for open-access in the near future, constitute a very important source providing a wealth of information on coastal and marine issues in general and for the Mediterranean, the Black and Caspian Seas in particular.

One of the aims of the workshop was to review the past and present activities and practices in the field of integrated coastal management in the Mediterranean, the Black and Caspian Seas in parallel to the past MEDCOAST activities. The more significant aim was to make future projections, to reflect on the future opportunities for continuing the MEDCOAST valuable collaboration and its future as a regional institution for better contributing to coastal and marine management and conservation. A field trip was organized to Dalyan, a marine turtle important area, on May 29. PAP/RAC has been providing support to MEDCOAST since its early days.