LIFE Adapts

Finding possible adaptation solutions for animal species that live in the sea and along our Mediterranean coasts, habitats which are increasingly affected by the climate crisis. This is the objective of the LIFE ADAPTS (climate change Adaptations to Protect Turtles and monk Seals) project, which has just been launched and is financed by the European Union. The LIFE ADAPTS project, with the contribution of the LIFE Programme of the European Union and the contribution of the Green Fund, will run for five years and will be implemented in three Mediterranean countries: Italy, Greece, and Cyprus, where key reproductive and living areas have been identified for three symbolic species of the Mare Nostrum: green turtle (Chelonia mydas), loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus).

The team is coordinated by the Department of Biology of the University of Pisa and includes research bodies, institutions, associations specialised in the protection of the three species, experts and researchers. Seven partners are involved: WWF and Gruppo Foca Monaca in Italy, ARCHELON (The Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece) and MOm (Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal) in Greece and MEDTRACS (Mediterranean Turtle Research and Conservation Society), the Oceanography Center of the University of Cyprus (OC-UCY) and the Department for Fisheries and Marine Research of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment (DFMR) in Cyprus.