CIIMAR received the visit of the partners from the MALIA project during the 4th week of the exchange program.

 

Marine litter awareness through learning by doing (MALIA) is a project funded by the European Erasmus+ program which aims to contribute to the introduction of themes associated with marine conservation in school curricula. This project, which began in January 2018, has partners from 4 European countries: Portugal, Cyprus, Italy and Spain, and intends to present the problem of marine litter to school-age youngsters, addressing the issue in a positive way. The partners include four schools (IES Europe, Escola Secundária de Paredes, Enrico Fermi and LEM Gymnasium, from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Cyprus respectively), three NGOs (AAE, AIRIK and AKTI from Spain, Italy and Cyprus and CIIMAR, represented by researchers Marisa Almeida and Laura Guimarães.

 

The project's various activities include weeks of exchanges in which young people participate in garbage collection on beaches, produce various artworks with the collected garbage, and visit the environmental and research centers.

 

During the visit to Portugal, the young people and other project participants collected garbage at Cabedelo Beach in Vila Nova de Gaia and visited CIIMAR where the researchers Marisa Almeida and Laura Guimarães presented the various projects of the center in the field of marine litter, plastics and microplastics in the coastal zone, as well as projects of scientific dissemination.