The development of a national roadmap for the protection and restoration of Posidonia seagrass meadows in Tunisia was the main recommendation from the “Posidonia Seagrass Meadows Days in Tunisia”, organised last February in Tunis by the World Wide Fund for Nature, North Africa office, with the participation of the Ministries of Environment, Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries.
According to WWF North Africa, this is an important step in a national participatory approach aimed at valuing blue carbon and strengthening the sustainability of coasts and marine resources in Tunisia.
These days provided an opportunity to review the institutional framework for the protection of marine biodiversity and the results of the national update of Posidonia seagrass maps and regional projects and scientific research on the blue carbon stock in Tunisia.
The discussions also focused on ways to reconcile the protection of these ecosystems with the sustainability of the maritime fishing sector, as well as on the governance mechanisms to be put in place for better management of Posidonia seagrass meadows.
These days were also an opportunity to promote the Southern Mediterranean Posidonia Network (SMPN) as a regional platform to strengthen coordination and the exchange of experiences in the southern Mediterranean and to study the impact of pollution on the spread of seagrass meadows.
Posidonia seagrass meadows (Posidonia oceanica), named after Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, are flowering plants that characterize the underwater Mediterranean. They are often carried by the current in all directions, forming wave-like bundles of green leaves in the shallow underwater waters of the Mediterranean.
Although they only occupy between 25,000 and 50,000 km2 of the Mediterranean coastal areas, corresponding to 25% of the seabed, according to medwet.org, Posidonia seagrass meadows play a vital role in carbon storage.
However, these endemic Mediterranean underwater forests, which provide food and shelter to other species, stabilize the seabed and help to counter marine erosion, are now threatened due to their sensitivity to human practices (pollution, overfishing, etc.), biological invasions and climate change.
In Tunisia, as elsewhere in the Mediterranean, Posidonia seagrass meadows, known in Tunisian dialect as “Dhrii,” have suffered a significant decline in recent years, primarily due to illegal fishing (trawling), competition with introduced species, coastal aquaculture, and the pressure of chemical pollution. This decline is particularly noticeable, according to the Coastal Protection and Development Agency (APAL), along various coastlines, especially the Gulf of Gabès, renowned for its tiger seagrass meadows.
However, to this day, no specific protection law targets these underwater ecosystems present on almost all Tunisian coasts (Sousse, Kelibia, Hammamet, Gulf of Gabès, Monastir, Bizerte), while in other countries including France, they have been protected as a “remarkable or characteristic landscape of the natural and cultural heritage of the coastline” since September 1989 (decree).
source : web manager center
