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The Black Sea shores are vulnerable to anthropogenic and technogenic activities. The sources of the marine litter are basin based problem which is closely related to ecosystem and public health, conservation of the environment, marine habitat, biodiversity and sustainable development in the Black Sea region. Marine litter has a negative impact on the populations, ecosystems and wildlife, abiotic nature and economy. The project enhances awareness-based neighborhood cooperation, cross-border information exchange, use innovative awareness methods between six partners (NGOs, higher education and scientific research institutes) from four countries which are Turkey, Romania Bulgaria, and Georgia . In the project, cultural differences will be considered and raising awareness strategies will be developed to country-specific. The main aim of the project is to reach correct target groups, who are the most powerful impact to reduce litter in the source. In the project, “bottom-up” approach will be accepted during the training and awareness activities. In this approach, housewives, students, fishermen, muhtars, NGOs, local authorities, and decision-makers will be the main target groups of the project. In addition to that, citizens, villagers, tourism and shipping agencies will be informed/ aware of litter impacts on the marine environment and human health by using various educational/training tools. Scientists, sectoral experts, subject related NGO will joint awareness, educational and training activities. There will be many activities envisaged in the project such as in-situ trainings, field studies, cruise, visual materials (litter movement model output), and other awareness materials for housewives, students, children, local authorities, and decision-makers. Meetings, workshops, TV programmes, cartoons, toys, play cards etc will help to show litter impacts on their marine environment and human health. To stop/reduce plastic bag usage in the kitchen wastes, a housewife who live in the town will train to produce fertilizer for their field from organic wastes. Other output will be the litter movement model which will demonstrate litter movement from sources to the last decision in the sea. GIS/WEB based-hydrodynamic model is one of the best methods to identify and demonstrate litter distribution and accumulation for awareness of stakeholders. Other output will be two social surveys by using questionnaires to understand the level of public knowledge on social, ecological and harmful effects of the litters at initial and final stages.
In the project, the scope of the project is to reach over 4000-4500 stakeholders directly and more than 1.000.000 beneficiaries in all partner countries indirectly.
