A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was made at COP21 between AQUACROSS partner International Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) and the Environmental Information Network of Andalusia (REDIAM).

Dr. Vladimir Ryabinin, Executive Secretary of IOC-UNESCO, met with H.E. María Teresa Lizaranzu-Perinat, Spanish Ambassador to UNESCO, and H.E. José Fiscal-López, Councilor for Environment and Planning of the Regional Government of Andalusia (Spain), signed the memorandum on 10 December 2015 in Le Bourget, Paris.

Overall, the collaboration enables cooperation in areas of common interest, including environmental data and information to support policy-making, developing decision support tools and communication initiatives to reach the general public and stakeholders, as well as other issues related to capacity building, transboundary projects with African and Mediterranean countries, and Spanish international cooperation in other regions of the world. 

With respect to AQUACROSS, this collaboration supports IOC-UNESCO’s role in implementing the information platform and leading a case study analysing transboundary aquatic ecosystems and green/blue infrastructures in the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean Andalusia (Spain) – Morocco. The Department of Environment and Planning of the Regional Government of Andalusia has officially become the main stakeholder for this case study.

Since the 1980s, REDIAM has a complete and interactive data and information platform on environmental themes, including coastal, marine, climate change and biodiversity. The MoU allows IOC-UNESCO to use data and information from REDIAM as the main data source for the case study; in turn, providing REDIAM with publishable results of common work in the context of AQUACROSS, data and information related to the case study, as well as the tools, models, and scenarios.

The original story of this meeting can be found on IOC-UNESCO’s website, here.