Blueforesting project is over, but the work continues

Paul Renaud and Laurids Enevoldsen attended the Final Event of the Blueforesting project in Viana do Castelo, Portugal 23-24 April. The interdisciplinary project investigated ways of promoting climate resilient marine macroalgal forests for a sustainable future. Through mapping of macroalgal forests along the Portuguese coast, examining population structure and sensitivity of different macroalgal species, developing regional and fine-scale climate projections, and identifying societal perspectives, the project provides science-based advice for protecting and restoring marine forests and the ecosystem services they provide.

The two-day event included a summary of project results and a stakeholder conference where leaders in government, entrepreneurship, economic planning, and science and technology participated. Close interaction with local communities has been a key element of the project over the past two and a half years.

At the meeting Paul and Laurids were joined by Akvaplan-niva friend Brian Tsuyoshi Takeda from Urchinomics. (Photo: Sofia Hernández Chan)

The work conducted through Blueforesting adds to the growing expertise and portfolio of restoration projects at Akvaplan-niva and NIVA. Challenges for macroalgal forest restoration in Portugal and Norway are similar and include changing climate and heavy grazing pressure. Strong public engagement, along with developing technologies and a perspective stressing the importance of restoring intact ecosystems, are positive signs for achieving our restoration goals.

Laurids Enevoldsen states: "In this project we have been working with restoration and thermal tolerance of intertidal and subtidal macroalgae species that is shared between the coastline of Portugal and the Tromsø area. We were privileged to have Sofia Hernandez from CIIMAR visiting in November, teaching us how to perform the experiments and now we finally got the chance to meet everyone else involved in the project at the final event. We have been extremely well taken care of by the people in CIIMAR and I am looking much forward to future projects with them."

The Blueforesting project was funded through the EEA Norway Grants Program and was led by CIIMAR and included other Portuguese project partners CIBIO (Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources), the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, and Sea Forester from Portugal, along with NIVA, Akvaplan-niva from Norway.