Invasive Alien Species Observatory and Network Development for the Assessment of Climate Change Impacts and Contextual Ecosystem Services Evaluation in Black Sea Deltaic Protected Areas

ACRONYM: IASON+
The project is funded by the European Union through the Interreg VI-B mechanism, the Next Black Sea Basin Programme. The value of the contract is €1,396,112.46.
Contract period: 28.06.2024 – 27.12.2026

Project priority
Programme priority
02 – Clean and Green Region
Specific objective
RSO2.4 – Promoting climate change adaptation and disaster risk prevention, resilience, taking into account eco-system based approaches.

THE GENERAL OBJECTIVE OF THE IASON+ project – to continue the activities of establishing and carrying out joint actions for monitoring Invasive Alien Species (IAS), to assess their influence in defining Ecosystem Services (ES) in deltaic ecosystems in the Black Sea Basin, in five countries (Romania, Ukraine, Greece, Turkey and Georgia) and to assess resilience in current and forecasted climatic conditions, to create and promote the premises for adaptation to climate change.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE OF THE IASON+ PROJECT: Continuing, developing and implementing common procedures for monitoring and assessing risks to invasive alien species (IAS), assessing their influence in defining ecosystem services (ES) in deltaic ecosystems in the Black Sea Basin (BSM) and assessing resilience in current and forecasted climate conditions, in order to create and promote climate change adaptation premises in the protected areas of the project, in line with regional strategies and policies, targeting, motivating and assisting countries in the creation of IAS inventories, based on long-term cross-border collaboration, information and research capacity through access to and use of innovative technologies on IAS monitoring and their influence on SE, improving cooperation through the involvement of stakeholders at different levels of the project.

PROJECT PARTNERS:
Consortium Leader – Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development, (DDNI) – Romania
Project Partner 2 – Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority (ARBDD) – Romania
Project Partner 3 – Institute of Marine Biology of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine (IMB) – Ukraine
Project Partner 4 – Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH) – Greece
Project Partner 5 – Karadeniz Technical University – Marine Sciences Faculty (KTU-MSF) – Republic of Türkiye
Project Partner 6 – International Business and Economic Development Center (IBEDC) – Georgia