On 20 and 21 February, ISPRA researchers went to the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park as part of the SeaForest LIFE project.

The first day they presented to the Park Director, Dr Romano Gregorio, the preliminary data on the census of boats present in summer in the two Marine Protected Areas present within the Park (the MPA of Santa Maria di Castellabate and the MA Costa degli Infreschi and della Masseta), at the Center for Studies and Research on Biodiversity in Vallo della Lucania (SA).

On 21 February an operational meeting was held with the Head of the Marine Protected Areas and Park Community Service, Dr Francesco De Luca, and the members of the Carabinieri Diving Unit of Naples, at Villa Matarazzo (Castellabate - SA). Thanks to this important meeting, a collaboration between the Carabinieri and SeaForest LIFE has started. The Carabinieri will guarantee technical and logistical support to ISPRA researchers for monitoring activities on Posidonia oceanica in the MPAs of the Cilento National Park. Thanks to the precious help that will be provided by the Carabinieri Diving Unit of Naples, our project will be able to collect important data to better quantify the precious carbon stored by the Posidonia oceanica meadows under the sea surface, so useful to mitigate, at least in part, the effect of climate change on our future.

Marini Pulcini, Sante Francesco Rende, Luca Parlagreco and Silvia Maltese participated for ISPRA, and the Mar. Magg. Sandro Buccalo (Comandante Aliquota Subacquei Napoli), the Mar. Magg. Santi Scolaro (Vice Comandante), and the Brig. Fabio Vitozzi, the Vice Brig. Gennaro Attore, the Vice Brig. Giovanni Falco (infermiere F. SUB), the App. Sc. Q.S. Salavatore Pantalena, the App. Sc. Marco Panico for the Carabinieri Diving Unit of Naples.