08 Nov The Ocean Race Europe Summit addresses the debate on ocean protection policies from Alicante

The Ocean Race Europe ends its events in Alicante with an online forum to discuss proposals for sustainability and innovation on the protection of the marine environment

The Ocean Race Europe Summit, the virtual discussion table organized this Wednesday by The Ocean Race Europe (TORE), has brought together 400 leading European experts on environmental protection and marine sustainability. This global debate summit on ocean protection policies is part of the events of The Ocean Race Europe with a stage in Alicante and which will end this week in Genoa (Italy).

The Summit featured a presentation by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the participation of the Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera. From Alicante, at the facilities of the Ocean Race Museum in Alicante, 10 representatives of organizations and entities that work in this field in the Valencian Community participated, led by the Minister of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society, Carolina Pascual, together with Richard Brisius , president of The Ocean Race and the competition’s sustainability manager, Johan Strid, as well as academics, companies from the Valencian Community Digital District, specialists and NGOs.

The purpose of these meetings is to focus on the best practices on sustainable, innovative and governance measures, to prepare a series of proposals that will be collected by the European Commissioner Viginijus Sinkevicius, for debate in the European Union. In her speech, Carolina Pascual highlighted the firm commitment of the Generalitat Valenciana for environmental conservation and the blue economy.

“The situation of our seas and oceans affects the whole world, and cooperation and alliances between regions, administrations, public and private sectors and, above all, research, innovation and investment are necessary,” he said in this regard.

For this reason, according to the minister, “the lines of work of the Generalitat Valenciana are going to influence the monitoring of the marine environment, sustainable and intelligent aquaculture and the blue economy”.

Moderated by the Deputy Director of SPTCV, Rufino Selva, this local table was also made up of the General Director of Science and Innovation, Ángel Carbonell Barrachina, the Deputy Mayor and Councilor for Tourism of the Alicante City Council, Mª Carmen Sánchez, the head of service of the Environment of the City Council of Alicante. Juan Luis Beresaluze Pastor and the professor of the Department of Marine Sciences and Applied Biology, University of Alicante, José Luis Sánchez Lizaso.

They also participated on behalf of the NGO The Isbjorn Collective Sento Hernández; Product & Business Development Teralco Francisco Zaplana; the president of lucentia Juan Carlos Trujillo; the director of the Port Authority of Alicante (APA) Carlos Eleno, the marine biologist and doctor in Biology from the Polytechnic University of Valencia Eloy Messeguer, and the director of the Chair of Human Rights and Nature at the University of Murcia Teresa Vicente .

For his part, Ángel Carbonell Barrachina referred to the support that the Ministry of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society provides for excellence and multidisciplinary research on marine sciences. The objective is “to achieve sustainability and safety, as well as to ensure the future of our seas and oceans, and for this it is essential to improve the environmental education of our society,” he said in this regard.

“This research must be based on modern monitoring and early warning systems, against risks of a different nature, that allow risk prediction, decision-making and governance based on digitalization and artificial intelligence. For this reason, we must develop blue economy products to create new opportunities and have a great impact on the productive fabric and the economy of coastal communities; impact that, as we have indicated, must be based on multidisciplinary research of excellence”, he concluded.

Mari Carmen Sánchez made it clear that the Alicante Tourist Board “has Sustainability and Digitization as its main axes within the city’s tourism strategy”. In this line, he added. “The Summit of The Ocean Race Europe is one more step of special importance to make Alicante an innovative destination committed to the protection of the oceans and sustainability”.

CONCLUSIONS

From the city of Alicante, the actions of regeneration of the coastline, the Tabarca reserve, the maintenance of its beaches, the regeneration of the seabed and sustainability applied to sports tourism, among many other issues, were explained.

Among the conclusions of the discussion table, the need to change the mentality from the base of learning and environmental education with continuous training programs, the creation of alert systems for environmental, biological or chemical risks was emphasized.

In addition, the need to finance research talent was raised, scale innovative solutions on proposals for environmental improvement, recognize the value of nature as a defender of rights, control/evaluation applications of pollution demissions, limit protected areas and expand the financing of all environmental investment programs.

Also taking part in the session, as guests, were Mariano Ramírez Battistig and Miguel Ángel Villaroya (European Union Intellectual Property Office, EUIPO); Catalina Iliescu, Vice President for Culture, Sports and University Extension of the UA; Roberto Cejuela. Director of the UA Sports Secretariat; George Rodriguez. CEO of ESATUR. (The Ocean Race Museum) and Domingo Egea, director of attracting companies from the Digital District.