REPOSIDONIA: Final Project Report Identifying Critical Blue Carbon stocks in Greece

In the context of REPOSIDONIA project, iSea has identified three main regions of importance for P. oceanica meadows in Greece namely: Formicula island (Inner Ionian Archipelago); Lemnos Island and Nisyros, Gyali and surrounding islands. These areas belong to the Natura2000 network designated as Sites of Community Interest (SCI) and Special Areas for Conservation (SAC). The drivers in pinpointing these areas derive from their similarities as the data of the habitat 1120 (Posidonia beds) is listed as “Poor” in the Standard Data Forms (SDFs), indicating that more research is needed, while the threats they receive are not sufficiently assessed or monitored (i.e. tourism, coastal development, pollution etc.). For each region iSea conducted five main activities; a) mapping the habitat Posidonia meadows (1120): b) record the local marine biodiversity and fish biomass; c) health assessment for Posidonia meadows; d) estimate blue carbon stock within each meadow; e) stakeholder's engagement; and f) management actions. The project was implemented by iSea, in collaboration with MER and terraSolutions and funded by Blue Marine Foundation.