Final Report 2015 - MARLISCO - MARine Litter in Europe Seas: Social AwarnesS and CO-Responsability

MARLISCO has contributed to set a clear picture regarding Marine litter in each of the European Regional Seas as well as to towards a better understanding of the science-society nexus and provided material to translate research-based. The project included a review on distribution, quantities and types, sources, and impacts of marine litter; a summary of current methods of monitoring and assessment for ML; a review of existing policies that may be applied to mitigate the impact of ML.
WP2 identified 72 best practices for the reduction of ML. It tells how the issue of ML is addressed and allows the identification of key attributes that make a ML minimisation practice a ‘best’ practice.
The “MARLISCO Marine Litter Database”, is an additional means of further disseminating project products and activities. It is an interactive database, developed to collate all the litter data that partners have captured during the project as a result of the clean-up activities initiated to raise awareness about the marine litter issue. The database has been developed with an interactive map interface that allows the user to pinpoint the clean-up locations. The database also allows users to interrogate the data to get information on specific types of waste or specific locations.
MARLISCO has developed a user-friendly “what-to-do: problem-processes-solution” (available in 8 languages) Guide for stakeholders, decision-makers and key actors on tips and means to manage and reduce marine litter. Using the clusters identified during the analysis of the recorded best practices as the backbone, the guide outlines the main actions that different stakeholder groups and key actors can take, while at the same time presenting practical examples that support the implementation efforts, help transfer knowledge, experience and methods from elsewhere, and present networking and cooperation opportunities
MARLISCO project has assessed society’s perceptions about marine litter and evaluated the impact of a number of educational and outreach activities with a range of stakeholder groups across Europe. Gauging people’s baseline perceptions and assessing the effectiveness of communication and engagement attempts is critical if we are to develop better strategies to improve understanding about the problem and solutions surrounding marine litter and influence behavioural change. To achieve this, MARLISCO developed a range of social surveys applicable to a variety of participants, including children, the general public and educators, and prepared several publically available reports documenting the methods and key findings.
MARLISCO conducted an extensive European-wide survey on awareness and perceptions about marine litter. Detailed results are available in the project report “Baseline Evaluation of Stakeholder perceptions and attitudes towards issues surrounding marine litter”. MARLISCO undertook the evaluation of the effectiveness of specific outreach and educational activities MARLISCO. Detailed results from each survey evaluation are presented in the project’s evaluation report “Evaluation of specific educational and outreach activities related to marine litter (Impact of National Fora, Impact of Video contest, Impact of E-Learning Courses for Educators, Visitors perception at National Exhibitions).
MARLISCO has organised and run a series of 12 national marine litter fora across Europe between April 2014 and April 2015. The Fora were to raise awareness of the marine litter issue and find potential long term solutions. This activity was undertaken through engagement of stakeholders with an interest in, or responsibility for, some aspect of reducing the quantity of litter entering the oceans across Europe and by gathering stakeholder’s opinions on how to address marine litter in their country.
The European Video competition that MARLISCO launched in 2013 represented a specific activity to engage youngsters and trigger awareness by actively encouraging them to get in touch with the issue with a critical and creative perspective. In total, 379 videos were submitted, from the 14 participating coastal countries, reflective the direct involvement of 2123 youngsters.
MARLISCO aimed at constructively connecting science to society by ‘translating’ current state-of-the-art marine litter knowledge into relevant awareness raising and educational tools, that can be used to motivate people and trigger sustainable actions in the partner countries. The compilation of a multilingual Educational Pack targeting primarily learners aged 10-15 years has been implemented
Another appealing multilingual MARLISCO output that attempts to translate science as well as policies to meaningful, yet not paternalistic learning content is an interactive e-game; a kind of a Role Playing Game (RPG) using comics, entitled “Sea Dream Team”.
Another tool of MARLISCO with an outreach estimated to more than one hundred thousand people has been the awareness raising exhibition.
MARLISCO has defined the format, the structure and the content of an informative brochure targeted to different sectors (from individuals to maritime, plastics industry and tourism sectors). This brochure, entitled ‘Stopping marine litter together! Each and every one of us can contribute in keeping our coasts and seas litter free!’, provides essential information on the marine litter issue (sources, composition and impacts) and suggestions on how one can contribute to tackling this growing pressure
To complement the Educational Pack, MARLISCO developed and run asynchronous e-learning course, on how to practically apply the Pack with learners.
The project has elaborated and finalised a 32-page document that showcases the MARLISCO experiences and contributes to an improved understanding of the science-society nexus, while setting a precedent for effective use of knowledge towards sustainable and responsible individual and collective actions.