The Regional Government, through the Regional Fund for Science and Technology, is the coordinator of MOVE-ON, a 1.5-million-Euro European project with an implementation period of 36 months.

Funded by the European Commission, through DG-ENVIRONMENT, MOVE-ON aims to support the implementation of the European Union’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2020 in Outermost Regions (OR) and Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT), with special emphasis on “Action 5: Improving knowledge of ecosystems and their services in the European Union.”

The kick-off meeting for this project started today, in an online format, and will take place for three days. It will be attended by the 12 partner entities representing Outermost Regions and the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union.

Throughout the project, the state of the art of the MAES exercise – Mapping and Evaluation of Ecosystems and their Services will be rigorously evaluated in these territories. Moreover, it also includes the inventory and analysis of the human capacities and resources available in these regions, mobilising and involving all stakeholders, from methodological development to decision-making support.

Moving forward with the implementation of the MAES methodology is also one of the goals of MOVE-ON, through the development of four anchor projects in OR and OCT regions, covering marine and terrestrial ecosystems in different locations and geographical scales, with one of them focused on Macaronesia.

This work leverages the results achieved by the MOVE project, also coordinated by the Regional Fund for Science and Technology. Under this project, eight case studies are being developed to test the feasibility of the MAES methodology in OMR and OCT regions, including one case study on Terceira Island and another case study on the Canary Islands.

According to the Regional Director for Science and Technology, the project “strongly involves all regional stakeholders with expertise in the fields of environmental management and conservation.”

According to Bruno Pacheco, the MOVE-ON project counts on “the active collaboration” of the Regional Director for the Environment as well as on the technical-scientific expertise of the teams of researchers from the University of the Azores.

The MOVE-ON project involves the participation of the following entities: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover (Germany); Rey Juan Carlos University and Asociación Biodiversidad Atlántica y Sostenibilidad (Spain); Regional Agency for Development, Investment and Innovation, University of Réunion, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement and Nova Blue Environment (France); University of Portsmouth and South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute (United Kingdom); Universitá degli Studi di Trento (Italy) and the NGO World Wide Fund for Nature.