Today, for the purposes of the European project CYCLADES LIFE, WWF Greece and the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate Change signed a memorandum of understanding. The memorandum designates the Ministry as one of the main partners of the project with the mandate of establishing a Marine Protected Area (MPA) at the island of Gyaros and the surrounding marine area.
It was signed by WWF Greece’s CEO Mr. Demetres Karavellas and the General Secretary of the Ministry Mrs. Nadia Giannakopoulous, who actively contributed to the finalisation of the signing. The project CYCLADES LIFE, began in 2013 and its aim is to establish a unique marine protected area around the island’s Natura 2000 site and parallely support the fisheries and the local societies of Syros and Andros. The area will be unique since the design, the implementation and the management of the MPA will be a common endeavour undertaken by all the relevant stakeholders namely the fishermen, the touristic sector, the local authorities, the state etc.
The Ministry’s participation as a partner of the project does not include any financial contribution. It refers to the legal designation of the area as a Marine Protected Area. According to the Greek legislation, the Ministry is the national competent authority for establishing an MPA. For the next three years, the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate Change, the Decentralised Administration of the Aegean, the Development Corporation of Local Authorities of Cyclades SA, the Harokopio University, the Tethys Research Institute and MOm/The Society for the Study and Protection of the Mediterranean monk seal and WWF Greece will work together for the purposes of the CYCLADES LIFE project. The project CYCLADES LIFE (LIFE 12 NAT/GR/000688) “Integrated monk seal conservation in Northern Cyclades” is support and co funded by the financial instrument LIFE Nature and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.
(c) Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate Change