7th EU Blue Parks Community Workshop

The seventh EU Blue Parks Community workshop ‘From science to practice: co-creating effective MPAs to meet the EU marine protection targets’ will be held in conjunction with the Blue4all final event. This workshop will take place as a back-to-back event with the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity, in ​​​​Bruges, Belgium on 16 November 2026 (13:30-17:30). 

Since its establishment, the EU Blue Parks Community has created an important space for exchange between Member States, regional authorities, MPA managers, EU-funded projects, research organisations, networks and other stakeholders. Previous workshops have helped identify challenges, showcase good practices, and strengthen connections across the EU marine protection landscape.   

This workshop is designed as an implementation-focused Community event with a deliberately practical central question: what outputs, tools and lessons from EU-funded projects are ready for uptake by MPA managers and authorities - and what does it take to make that uptake happen? The event aims to connect mature EU project outputs with the needs of practitioners and decision makers, while identifying uptake pathways and enabling conditions across sea basins and thus contribute to the success of the EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030.  

To this end, the EU Blue Parks Community is joining forces with Blue4all, an EU-funded Mission Blue Park project and active member of the Community. Over the past years, Blue4all has worked closely with MPA managers, authorities and stakeholders in 15 MPAs across Europe to co-develop, test and refine approaches for supporting effective MPAs. As the project reaches its conclusion, the workshop will provide an opportunity to share lessons from these experiences and introduce the MPA Solutions Hub, a new resource designed to make practical tools, methods and lessons accessible to the wider MPA community. Combined with contributions from other EU-funded projects and Missio​​​​​​​​n Ocean and Waters actions, the workshop will provide a structured opportunity to connect existing tools, knowledge and resources with the people and institutions that need them most to implement them effectively. 

Agenda and registration details to follow.