Preservation of marine habitats
on the Lérins Islands
Location: Lérins islands, France
Duration: July 2020 – June 2023
Financial and institutional partners: European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, the Région Sud (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur)
Local partners: Ville de Canne, Abbaye de Lérins, CPIE des Iles de Lérins et Pays d’Azur, L’Association pour la Pêche et les Activités Maritimes – APAM. Prud’Homie de Pêche de Cannes
Total budget: €1,266,932
SMILO began the project “Preservation of the marine habitats of the Lerins Islands (France)” in 2019, supported by the European Fund for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (EMFF) and the South Region – Provence-Alps-French Riviera, in partnership with the City of Cannes and the Lérins Abbey.
Field missions in 2020 and 2021 have allowed to evaluate the sanitation infrastructure of the Abbey of Lerins and to prepare the installation of the future treatment plant by planted filters of reeds. Today the work continues and many experts and technicians have been mobilized to advance this activity. Actions on the better management of water resources have also been developed, such as the monitoring of irrigation water consumption in partnership with SEMIDE.
SMILO has called upon the CPIE des Iles de Lérins et Pays d’Azur to develop two global campaigns for the preservation of the seabed of the Lérins Islands in 2021 and 2022. These campaigns, organized during the summer seasons, aimed to raise awareness among the various users of the sea about sustainable practices and the preservation of the seabed of the Lerins Islands. As economic actors directly concerned by the management of the marine environment, professional fishermen were associated throughout this campaign. Specific activities focused on the involvement and real participation of fishermen in the management of the marine territory, especially in the framework of the Natura 2000 site including the Lerins Islands.
SMILO has established a Small Island Sanitation Expert Group to provide guidance to small island managers in improving wastewater in improving wastewater treatment.
The result of this panel’s work is a guidebook for small island managers who want to reduce the impact of wastewater on their environment by implementing proper sanitation. It gives simple and practical recommendations to guide their choice of sanitation systems. Although the recommendations are mainly aimed at the construction of new networks and treatment plants, they are also relevant for the upgrading of old sites.
SMILO has created this guide with this group of international experts, led by ARBE and INRAE.
An international meeting “Sanitation on small islands, solutions and good practices” was held on November 22-23, 2022 on the island of Saint-Honorat. The objective of this workshop was to present the contents of the guide, by declining it in various technical sessions, to present the solutions of sanitation for the islands, and to benefit from the returns of experience of the managers of islands. It gathered the members of the expert group, the French-speaking island managers of the SMILO network and the partners of Saint-Honorat. 36 participants attended the workshop, including seven islands of the SMILO network (France: Ilur, Frioul, Porquerolles, Sainte-Marguerite and Saint-Honorat; Tunisia: Kerkennah; Senegal: Gorée).
These exchanges resonate with the strategic evolution of SMILO and the strengthening of the expertise and know-how held by its international community of practice.
On the other hand, all the activities of this project are in line with the SMILO labelling process which has seen the island of Saint-Honorat obtain the “In Progress” label and the sectoral waste award in 2020. The good governance of the territories that SMILO accompanies is embodied on the island by the animation of the Island Committee of St Honorat. SMILO has paid particular attention to the proper integration of the project’s activities into the broader framework of the island’s strategic planning for its sustainable development.
Finally, all of the project’s activities have been promoted on social networks, in the association’s annual reports, on the website, and also through 2 videos available on the SMILO’s Youtube channel.