Marine Strategy Framework Directive – Second Cycle: Implementation of the new GES Decision and Programmes of Measures

"The European Union’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) aims to achieve the protection of marine biodiversity and the sustainable use of the marine environment across Europe, with the objective of achieving Good Environmental Status (GES) of the EU's marine waters by 2020 on the basis of 11 qualitative descriptors. Marine litter is one of the most important human-caused pressures on marine environment, leading to the establishment of the descriptor 10 (D 10) for which GES is achieved when “properties and quantities of marine litter do not cause harm to the coastal and marine environment”.
The new proposal INDICIT II involves 12 partners from the public sector (7 EU countries and 2 non- EU countries), all contracting parties to the OSPAR (Atlantic) and/or Barcelona (Mediterranean) conventions. The general objectives are (1) to capitalize the practical outcomes related to networking, development of standardized tools, gathering of standard data and GES assessments for the Indicator “Litter ingested by sea turtles”, (2) to support the implementation of the indicators “Entanglement of sea turtles, birds, cetaceans in floating debris” and “Micro-plastic ingestion by fish and sea turtles”, (3) to support of next 6-year cycle of MSFD implementation by testing the indicators (especially the more advanced “Litter ingested by sea turtles”) in response to National PoMs in several pilot areas. By developing standardized knowledge for several fauna taxa at an extended spatial level, the new project will contribute to provide integrative tools to assess anthropogenic risks and distance to GESespecially in the framework of the Descriptor 10."

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