News

On April 15, 2026, the 5th Steering Committee meeting of the RICREA project took place at the Var Department headquarters in Toulon. This key meeting provided an important opportunity to review progress, discuss ongoing activities, and strengthen collaboration among project partners. 

The RICREA project – Network for Collaboration and Development for the Capitalization of RETRALAGS – builds on the results achieved by the RETRALAGS project, with the aim of enhancing the adaptive capacity and resilience of river, lake, and wetland ecosystems. 

All cross-border partners attended the meeting, each presenting updates on the progress of their activities at the local level. 

Representing the MEDSEA Foundation were Piera Pala, Francesca Etzi, and Francesca Muscas, who shared updates on the Coastal Wetlands Contract for the Oristano area. In particular, they highlighted the recent revision of the agreement, which now includes five new actions. Two of these have been funded by the Sardinia Region through a public call, for a total of €3.5 million allocated to water monitoring and coastal erosion prevention. 

The meeting also addressed progress on actions aimed at tackling invasive alien species, which the Foundation is carrying out in collaboration with DataCoopSardegna. Among the proposed measures, the pilot testing of selective fishing targeting female blue crabs at the S’Ena Arrubia site received strong support. This intervention is designed to reduce the species’ reproductive capacity, with the goal of limiting its spread and mitigating its impact (read more). 

The meeting also provided a valuable opportunity to explore and discuss Ecological Transition Contracts. These represent a strategic, long-term evolution of River Contracts, widely implemented in France, aimed at promoting energy efficiency and guiding sectoral transformations toward more sustainable models.

“Thanks to the work carried out within the RICREA project, we have been able to update and strengthen the framework of actions across the territory, which proved ready to seize the opportunities offered by regional funding. This highlights the importance of building shared and structured pathways over time. At the same time, there is a growing need to think even more strategically, looking toward Ecological Transition Contracts—broader and more ambitious tools capable of defining long-term goals and fostering integrated collaboration between public institutions and private stakeholders on a larger scale,” said Piera Pala, President of the MEDSEA Foundation.