The Nanocap Project, Nanotechnology Capacity Building NGOs
Nanotechnology is a major growth area in research and industry. Applications of nanotechnology include advanced materials, textiles, prosthetic implants, food and drugs. Nanosizing products have or may have many benefits. However, there is also a serious debate about the potential hazards of nano-particles (<100 nm), when introduced into the environment and the workplace.

REACHing a Sustainable Management of Chemicals in the Euro-Mediterranean Region”
MIO-ECSDE is implementing the project REACHing Sustainable Management of Chemicals in the Euro-Mediterranean Region”, which is supported by DG ENV.
The project (with a duration of 20 months) is inscribed in the framework of the EC Chemical Policyʼs reform under the proposed new system ʽREACHʼ designed to ensure a “high level of protection of human health and the environment”, following the precautionary principle.

REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals.

The reform, started in 2001 with the adoption by the European Commission of a White Paper on the strategy for a future Chemicals policy (the debate on the need to reform the system in place had already started in 1998), has been characterized by intense political negotiations that have finally been concluded in December 2006 with the adoption of the new Regulation

Keep the Mediterranean Litter-free Campaign

MIO-ECSDE, HELMEPA and Clean-up Greece with the support of MED/POL of UNEP/MAP have launched the "Keep the Mediterranean Litter-free Campaign" to raise public awareness on the causes and impacts of the pollution of the sea from solid waste. In the framework of this campaign a useful and attractive brochure has been produced presenting not only the various causes and impacts of marine litter but also highlighting the role and responsibilities of all actors concerned including the public at large, in protecting the coastal and marine environment from solid waste.

The brochure has been produced in Albanian, Arabic, English, French , Greek, Hebrew ,Italian, , Maltese, , Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish, .

Furthermore, a publication has been produced in English entitled “Public Awareness for the Management of Marine Litter in the Mediterranean”. It is based on a proposal of the three NGOs to MED POL for a common regional approach on how to raise awareness and appropriately educate all stakeholders in the Mediterranean about solid waste management. It introduces the basic parameters of the problem and contains specific sector-based guidelines for the main stakeholders i.e. agriculture, industry, the tourism and maritime sectors, regional, national and local authorities. Apart form these specific sectors the publication is also developed for use by NGOs, the media and the Mediterranean public at large.
It is anticipated that the campaign along with other relevant activities of the Mediterranean NGO community will contribute significantly to the effective implementation of a Regional Strategy to address the problem of marine litter in the Mediterranean, which is currently under development by MED POL and the Regional Seas Programme of UNEP.

Mediterranean Food Educational Project

On 1-2 December 2006 the meeting of the partners of the “Mediterranean Food Educational Project” took place at MIO-ECSDE offices in Athens. The meeting had objectives on one hand to discuss the developments of the project, including timetable, activities, logistics, partners₼ tasks, etc. and on the other hand, to elaborate the draft material on "Mediterranean food" regarding its objectives, content, structure, pedagogical methodology, etc. The overall project is an Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF) granted project. It was approved by its first Call for proposals (February 2006) under the Thematic Priority: "EuroMed Schools Programme”. The partner organizations involved are: AOYE –EGYPT, Legambiente – ITALY, LHAP- JORDAN, CMEPE –MOROCCO, ETNIA- PORTUGAL, APNEK- TUNISIA and MIO-ESCDE that is the leader & coordinator.

GEWAMED

The MIO-ECSDE Secretariat participates in the project GEWAMED “Mainstreaming Gender Dimensions into water resources development and management in the Mediterranean Region” together with 17 other institutions, universities and NGOs from all around the Mediterranean.

MIO-ECSDE involvement in GEWAMED is in line with its IWRM efforts towards mainstreaming gender aspects into water advocacy and policy making vis a vis the different roles of men and women in the water sector and the differential impacts of proposed policies.

Protection and Management of Four Natura 2000 Sites on the Isle of Corfu
MIO-ECSDE is currently running a project on the Protection and Management of Four Natura 2000 Sites on the Isle of Corfu, Greece. It is funded by the Hellenic Ministry for the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works. These sites are two wetlands, a salt marsh and a coastal zone, and all of them are already under many pressures which are expected to increase, a fact that makes their protection and integrated management imminent. It is a three year project and the main partners are two national NGO members of MIO-ECSDE (Elliniki Etairia and the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature), the Ecology Club of Corfu and local authorities. The overall objective is to successfully protect and manage these areas and then use the model for other areas under similar stress in other parts of Greece and the Mediterranean.

The Mediterranean Action Day
In the framework of its annual activities MIO-ECSDE has since a few years now included the project entitled The Mediterranean Action Day. The objective of the activity is to give the opportunity to the MIO-ECSDE member organisations to take action in the field and be more visible to their target populations while at the same time tackle a “hot” environmental issue of their municipality, region or country. It is a joint, small/medium-scale action conducted in all the Mediterranean countries during a four-month period (September – December). Most events last for just a half or full day, while others are combined with other events and last longer.

Every year the AGM or Executive Bureau of MIO-ECSDE decides on the theme. For the previous years the themes were:

2000: “Acting for the Environment through Artistic Expression”.
2001: “Water in the Mediterranean: Prominent Case Studies”. The events were part of the overall framework of the Rio+10 Mediterranean progress review process which culminated in the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg the next year.
2002: “The Art of Waste”. Click here for a synthesis report.
2003: “Water and Culture”. Click here for a synthesis report.
2004: “Erosion-Reforestation-Restoration"
2005: "Climate Change in the Mediterranean". click here for a synthesis report.
2006: The Mediterranean Action Day 2006 is free for the MIO-ECSDE membership but we encourage events on the "Keep the Mediterranean Litter-Free" campaign. Click here for the "application form" and "guidelines".

This type of activity is very representative of what Med NGOs could do with just a small amount of seed money (around 750 Euros) for well planned events aiming to raise awareness and promote action at various levels.

SUDECIR
Sustainable Development of European Cities and Regions: “The case study of Rhodes Island”

During this two year (1996-1998) research project, the four involved European partner-Institutes came out with a number of interesting observations, outcomes and proposals concerning regional sustainable development planning. The primary objective of the project, which was supported, amongst others, by DGXII of the European Commission, was to develop a (bottom-up) analytical concept and an associated set of practical guidelines which, when applied to a well-defined region, would produce for that region a clear and concrete path towards sustainability. Indeed, derived from scientific theory and refined by practical experience, the SUDECIR project developed and tested an approach for assessing the sustainability of a given region, for identifying those sectors that are most important for further progress, for ensuring the public education and participation necessary for the development of appropriate action, for tracking progress toward sustainable development, and, crucially, for the periodic review and revision of appropriate action plans.

In the framework of SUDECIR, MIO-ECSDE mainly focused on the analysis of the sector of tourism and conducted a case-study on a typical Mediterranean coastal region, the island of Rhodes, the development of which is dominated by tourism.

Further analysis and description of the project have been given in the books
- "Sustainable Development of European Cities and Regions (SUDECIR)", edited by G.H. Vonkeman (2000) (see relevant chapters by Scoullos M.J. et al.).
- M. Scoullos et al. 1999, “Planning Sustainable Regional Development. Principles, Tools and Practices. The Case study of Rhodes Island – Greece”. MIO-ECSDE. (link)