MARE a Nice – 18th Young and Mediterranean Meetings

For the second consecutive year MARE participate in the 18^th Young and Mediterranean Meetings 2017 in Villefranche-sur-Mer in Nice (France). The Hosting organization is Euro-Mediterranean Network (REM) and the topic for this year is about Ecotourism.

MARE joined the event with two of their volunteers “Méli-Shèryam and Anis” and their mentor “Nuria”.

 

 

 

 

 

We started the journey from: Massa Lubrense à Sorrento à Napoli à Genova à Ventimiglia àVillefranche-sur-Mer.

 

 

 

The first moment we arrived to this beautiful little town we were impressed by its magnificent bay, there were countless sailing boat and a big cruise ship.

The first day Tuesday 07 November:

The meeting began with a presentation of the program and a quick introduction of the hosting organization “Euro-Mediterranean Network”.

Lots of organizations were present from different Mediterranean countries (Tunisia, Italy, Morocco, Croatia, Slovenia…) but unfortunately many couldn’t join to the event because of the visa.

In the end of the day they gave each one of us some lovely gifts and a shooting session with nice fishing theme scenery.

The Second day Wednesday 08 November:

The meeting in the morning was at the auditorium were we had the official welcoming.

First we had the presentation of the project Urban Waste who promotes the waste prevention and management as well as the tourism value chain in order to develop eco-innovative and gender-sensitive.

 

Second was Airpaca a project that works on the quality of the air in the Mediterranean.

Last was a very interesting presentation of the label High Quality Whale watching from the association ACCOBAMS.

Another shooting session and this time with our countries flags. It was kind of funny that a Tunisian, Reunion and Spanish represent the Italian delegation in France.

In the afternoon, we had a presentation of microplastic flowed by two stimulating workshops. One was about confirming the existence of microplastic in shampoo and the other was about identifying the microplasticin the cosmetic productfrom the ingredients, they also showed us how to make our own natural shower gel.

After the workshop come The SHOWTIME, project Mare was the first delegation to start presenting their work (PowerPoint presentation and a Poster)

 

 

Poster 4  Nuria introduced our project and the marine park area of Punta Campanella, Méli-Shéryam continued with the training part (Italian course, Excursions, Kayaking, Snorkeling, Trainings…) then it was Anis turn to present the activities (Mare per Esplorare, Campo Boa, Ieranto Bay…).

Nuria concluded by showing the diverse culture that project MARE has hosted (31 volunteers/ 11 countries)

The third day Thursday 09 November:

The morning we commenced with a presentation of the bay of Villefranche-sur-mer which is one of the deepest natural harbors of any port in the Mediterranean Sea and provides safe sea anchorages for large ships, reaching depths of 95m, it extends to the south to form 500m abyss known as the undersea Canyon of Villefranche.

Afterwards, we were divided into two groups: one had a wonderful excursion around the bay in a sailing boat and the other had a quiz about Ecotourism.

After lunch, it was time for the rest of the delegations to present their project. Many of them were interesting and rewarding

Euro-Mediterranean Network had the final words; they shared their future projects and events for 2018, and started the vote for applications for the creation of a management council.

The evening we had a lovely last party, were everyone came with their elegant clothes and the stylish food was served flowed by an entertaining piece of art of improvisation from a group of local youth.