CIVICS has provided facilitation to partners in the Adriatic-Ionian basin for their work on establishing a maritime cluster in the sea region. The recent training and collaboration workshop that was held in Ravenna, Italy between 2-5 July 2018, under the EU-funded crossborder co-operation program ECO-NautiNet, aimed to animate regional actors towards a business-led cluster approach to sea-basin development.
CIVICS member Dr. C. Antonopoulos joined a group of experts from industry, research and practitioners in marine activities invited by the Chamber of Achaia. Strategic
approaches to blue growth development in the Ionian waters and the Adriatic basin are a very much needed response to a host of challenges that the region is facing. Locally strengthened production linkages, improved
accessibility and increased environmental protection together with properly articulated coastal and maritime spatial planning tools are essential for the region’s prospects in the near future.
The prospects of port development, offshore carbon extraction and tourist growth are key drivers of current patterns of exploitation in the maritime space that require holistic approaches to development, centred on community participation, landscape and heritage preservation and competitiveness that is based on achieving a higher-level of economic and environmental performance by marine actors in the region.