The protection of fish and marine resources and the improvement of environmental quality conditions in the sea is the goal by which Croatia and Italy want to protect the Adriatic through the ARGOS project – “Shared management of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture as a means of protecting marine resources in the Adriatic”. It is a project co-financed by the European Union within the cross-border cooperation program Interreg V-A Italy-Croatia, and the leading partner in the project is the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It also includes the County of Istria with HRK 2.9 million, of which 85% was financed by the European Union. The total value of the project is HRK 41,357,305.00. The project started on 1st of April 2020, and it ends on 30th of June 2023.
The general goal of the project is to promote a joint integrated approach that will be implemented at multiple levels, and is oriented towards the direct and indirect reduction of the pressure of fishing and aquaculture activities on the marine environment.
Dialogue with Italian institutions
It is intended to consolidate the dialogue between Italian and Croatian institutions relevant to the management of fisheries and aquaculture activities in order to establish a coordinated framework for the management of Adriatic fish resources and to strengthen the process of decision-making based on knowledge, within the framework of the management of Adriatic fish resources, by establishing a permanent scientific network between scientific and research centers, promoting the exchange of knowledge and the development of new common knowledge.
It is expected that through this project, sustainable behaviors and practices will be adopted in the fishing sector in order to preserve and protect marine resources, acquire knowledge and develop opportunities, especially in the form of spatial planning documentation, to start innovative farming in closed land or platform systems, and considered the possibilities for cultivation in the open sea without questioning the production capacity of the environment.
Support for fisheries
The most significant project activity of the County of Istria through ARGOS is the establishment of the Center for the Development of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the County of Istria. The establishment of the Center was guided by the idea of establishing cooperation between institutions and fishermen. The need for sustainable management of a very sensitive area, such as the northern Adriatic, will be the core activity of the center. In it, coordination activities of all institutions will be carried out through EU projects and the Operational Program for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Croatia. Support will also be given to local fisheries and aquaculture with an emphasis on small-scale coastal fishing. The existing building owned by the County of Istria will be adapted with the approved funds from the project in the amount of 212,000.00 Euros.
Apart from the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, which is the leading partner, the other partners in ARGOS from the Italian side are the regions of Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Molise and Puglia and the Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnologies within the National Research Center (IRBIM CNR) in Ancona, while from the Croatian side it is; Istria County, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Zadar County, Šibenik-Knin County Development Agency, Split-Dalmatia County Development Agency (RERA), Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IZOR). Associate members of the project are the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policy and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Croatia.
Taken from: Giornal.hr
