Segura Centre for Soil Science and Applied Biology (CEBAS-CSIC)

Next Monday, 17 August, COP17 on desertification gets underway in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia). This is the first of three environmental summits to be held this year. The next event will be in Yerevan (Armenia), where the COP17 on biodiversity will be held from 19 to 30 October, and the year will conclude with the COP31 on climate change, which will take place in Antalya (Turkey) from 9 to 20 November and will be co-chaired by Australia. Why has there been no proposal for a single summit encompassing all three? Would a climate summit held every two years, like those on biodiversity and desertification, be more appropriate? With the United States out of the picture, who is leading them? To answer these and other questions, SMC Spain organised a briefing session with experts who have extensive experience of this type of summit.

It is one year since the last episode of dead fish in the Mar Menor and six years since its collapse in 2016.  In the European project COASTAL we propose 14 solutions for the sustainable development of the Mar Menor and Campo de Cartagena in collaboration with representatives of the agriculture, tourism, fishing, salt marshes, public administrations, NGOs and research sectors.