31Oct2022
  • Location:   Osman Turan Conferance Hall, Trabzon, Turkey

LitOUTer INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

INVITATION LETTER

LitOUTer Project (BSB 785) “Raising Public Awareness and Reducing Marine Litter for Protection of the Black Sea Ecosystem”, supported by the Cross-Border Cooperation Joint Operational Programme Black Sea Basin 2014-2020; has been working for over two years since July 1st, 2020. An international symposium will be organized within the scope of the project on “31 October-2 November 2022" carrying out the slogan of "COMMON SEA, COMMON SOLUTION". 


Marine litter is known as an important environmental problem in the Black Sea. This problem can be reduced by individual, social, institutional, and international cooperation awareness movements. Marine litter is a social problem affecting the Black Sea marine ecosystem. Legal infrastructures regarding marine litter have been almost completed within the framework of national and international directives also national legislation, however, the expected positive outcomes have not been achieved due to the lack of public awareness. 

LitOUTer project was carried out by six partners of four Black Sea riparian countries (Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and Georgia), working to raise public awareness of the reduction of marine litter. 

The project aims to raise awareness among children (primary, secondary, and high school) and adults (university students, housewives, religious leaders, fisheries, agriculture, tourism sector, public institutions, and NGOs) through training and education activities supported by awareness materials appropriate to the level of interest of each stakeholder. 

In the project, the transportation of solid wastes triggered by humans from the source to the sea, their accumulation, ecological, social, and public health effects have been revealed, and the motivation to find solutions to the common problem has been developed. Within the scope of the project, the entry, transport, and accumulation of waste from the source to the sea were modeled, and the magnitude of the effect was presented visually to the decision makers and stakeholders. The national and international results of the project activities and studies on marine litter for twenty-six months will be presented in this symposium.