The marine protected area that constitutes the Delta of the Po River is a unique but fragile area, vulnerable to environmental risks originating from congesting ship traffic in the Northern Adriatic Sea.  

In the framework of PEPSEA, an Italy-Croatia Interreg-funded project, Po Delta Veneto Park, a major player in the protection of Po Delta lagoons and the surrounding environment as well as a partner in the project, has been in charge of the organization of training sessions for local Civil Protection volunteers to improve their skills on monitoring the quality of sea water and promptly managing any risk of oil spill over in the stretch of the sea facing the marine protected area of the Po Delta.      

To this purpose, a training course has been started in February 2022, in cooperation with ATRAC, the Croatian Centre for Training and Research on accidental marine pollution preparedness and response.

The course for Civil Protection comprises both frontal lessons, and training sessions involving some special equipment supplied to manage the pollution risks for the sea.   

On 24th February 2022, the PEPSEA team managed a workshop day with students from local schools to enhance their awareness over the environmental risk affecting the Po Delta.  

As part of the activities carried out by Po Delta Park, it is worth mentioning an intense three-day event organized in March 2022.

The Press Conference of the PEPSEA Project presentation in Italy took place in Porto Viro Visitor Center, a municipality in Province of Rovigo, on 16th March 2022. The opening event that saw the participation of local authorities and project partners received wide media coverage. The conference was followed by a coordination meeting aimed at presenting the activities scheduled for the following two days.

On 17th and 18th March 2022, it was held training lessons for Civil Protection, followed by a practical session focusing on interventions in case of incident in two pilot locations, namely the Canarin area and the Caleri Lagoon.

On 18th March 2022, the Media Tour took place in Caleri Lagoon in accordance with awareness and dissemination actions envisaged by the project.

The project is expected to be finalised by 30th June 2022, with the completion of the training course.