Progress report for
EU/UNDP Project: Improving Environmental Monitoring in the Black Sea - Selected Measures (EMBLAS-Plus)
Achievement at a glance
At present, the Project EMBLAS-Plus is just starting. The main activity now is to summarize all monitoring data collected during National Pilot Monitoring studies and Joint Black Sea surveys in 2016 and 2017 (including data obtaining using novel techniques such as e-DNA analysis, passive sampling etc.). The relevant public summary will be presented this spring to the participating countries.Meantime, preparations to Joint Black Sea surveys, conducted in parallel to Joint Danube Surveys of International Commission for Protection of the Danube river have been started. In the same time, preparations for the calls for proposals on small-scale demo projects aimed to improve the state of the Black Sea are being prepared. More information on the progress is at the project web-site www.emblasproject.org and in Facebook "Fans of the Black Sea".
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries in Ukraine is the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, in Georgia - the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture, in Russian Federation - the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Black Sea Commission is also considered as a project beneficiary.
Actions
In EU-Ukraine and EU-Georgia Association Agreement a special focus is made on implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.The project will provide an assistance in this field, namely:
- initial assessment of marine waters, determination of good environmental status and establishment of environmental targets and indicators;
- establishment of a monitoring programme for ongoing assessment and regular updating of targets;
- development of a marine strategy in cooperation with EU MSs.