MEDASSET
MEDASSET is an international non-profit NGO which plays an active role in the study and conservation of sea turtles and their habitats throughout the Mediterranean, through scientific research, environmental education, lobbying relevant decision makers and raising public awareness. The organisation is a partner to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) and a Permanent Observer-Member to the Bern Convention, Council of Europe, since 1988.
MEDASSET’s Mission:
“To win a place for sea turtles in the heart of the public and to establish them as a flagship species for the conservation needs of marine and coastal biodiversity throughout the Mediterranean region. To safeguard our wildlife inheritance for generations to come.”
Why Sea Turtles?
Sea turtles are considered as bioindicator species for the marine environment. This means that their abundance and distribution in marine ecosystems is indicative of the Good Environmental Status of the ecosystems. United Nations classify Loggerhead and Green turtle as “Common Indicator 3” for the Biodiversity and Ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea1.
MEDASSET holds both a regional and national role within the “Conservation of Marine Turtles in the Mediterranean Region” project.
MEDASSET is responsible for the Communication Strategy, production of relative material, as well as the dissemination and public outreach of the project. In regional level, it also implements the Development of a Pan-Mediterranean Stranding Protocol and Database, an udentified priority under the 2019 “RAC/SPA Updated Action Plan” for the Conservation of Mediterranean Marine Turtles and a Recommendation 5 in "Demography of marine turtle nesting in the Mediterranean sea: a gap analysis and research priorities" of the Demography Working Group of the “5th Mediterranean Conference on Marine Turtles” (Bern Convention T-PVS/Inf 2015 15). The project will contribute to the formulation and development of a Mediterranean network of all directly involved in national stranding networks and countries developing them throughout the Mediterranean. This will add to the optimal collection of data applying a common standardised method through a harmonised approach, hence overcoming the intercontinental characteristic of the sea and migratory life history strategy of sea turtles.
Moreover, the organisation implements research activities in national level in Albania and Greece (North Aegean) explained in detail in the “Countries” section.
- Mediterranean Action Plan Barcelona Convention, 2017, Biodiversity and Ecosystem (E01) Common Indicator 3: Species distributional range – Marine Turtles, https://www.medqsr.org/common-indicator-3-species-distributional-range-marine-turtles
https://www.facebook.com/MEDASSET.ORG/
https://www.instagram.com/medasset_/
