Project Summary

This summer, as part of my Leadership-in-Action project, I had the pleasure of working on a project titled “Preserving Sea Biodiversity” with a local NGO MerTerre in Marseille. The programme is hosted by Makesense in Paris and lasts for 6 weeks. MerTerre is an NGO working towards achieving zero marine waste using a data-centric approach. Our main task in this LiA project is to provide knowledge support through research and propose strategies to help MerTerre overcome its difficulties. 

About MerTerre

The MerTerre association was founded by Isabelle Poitou in 2000, during the writing of her doctoral thesis, when she realised that the answer to marine pollution lies in the intersection of natural sciences and social sciences. The association developed a protocol to characterise diffuse abandoned waste, a category of pollution which is yet to be defined in the legal system. Since then, MerTerre has been centralising information on pollution that ends up in aquatic systems in France. Later, MerTerre was entrusted to coordinate a large-scale clean-up program on the Calanque National Park, Calanque Prospres. The association also runs citizen science programs with local schools in Marseille, as well as a collaborative citizen science program, Adopt’1 Spot. In 2018, to address the needs of structuring and centralising standardised data acquired by its actions, MerTerre, with institutional partners, designed and developed ReMed Zero Plastic, a collaborative data platform for entering pollution data after a clean-up in the Mediterranean area. This data platform then grew into Zero Deschét Sauvage, a France nationwide version run by MerTerre and other co-pilot structures distributed throughout France. The data collected on the platform supports the work of MerTerre, pushing the implementation of relevant policies in France to combat diffuse abandoned waste and marine pollution. 

Objectives (given by Makesense)

• Find out what initiatives already exist and work to fight wild waste and engage local communities in the long run
• Raise awareness among local residents and actors about the issue of abandoned waste.
• Synthesise knowledge on the impact of waste on health and biodiversity to better inform the public
• Increase the impact of MerTerre and strengthen ties with local communities.
• Design a strategy to strengthen the engagement of its members, gain new members and create long-term mobilisation around the fight against abandoned waste

Challenges

• Limited budget and manpower of Makesense.To overcome this challenge, we focused only on non-paid methods and collaborative partners such as other NGOs. We understand that MerTerre is on a tight budget and limited manpower, hence we proposed only achievable long-term and sustainable plans. 

• Time constraint. Through communication with MerTerre, we prioritised work to address the main needs of the association. 

• Language barrier. Apart from actively trying to learn French, we received generous help from English speakers around us also utilised tools such as Google Translate.

Deliverables

1. Benchmark of projects, scientific literature and legislation. Reports summarising the information about international initiatives also working towards marine pollution, the impact of plastic pollution on human health and biodiversity and the available legislation worldwide on diffuse abandoned waste.
2. Propose practical ideas to strengthen MerTerre's engagement base and ensure the sustainability of its actions.
3. Field Work. Beach clean-ups and interview passerby about their views on marine pollution. 

Project Timeline

Week 1: Discover your missions and Marseille

• Programme launching workshops
• Travelling to Marseille
• Meeting organisations and local referrent
• Receiving the challenge and key deliverables

Week 2: Comprehension of the challenge

• First project meeting with organisations
• Design thinking and leadership workshops
• Welcome parties
• Beach clean-up

Week 3: Start the ideation process

• Ideation, community building and tectile ecological impact workshops
• Community garden visit
• Group coaching
• Start working on deliverables

Week 4: Test your ideas

• Beach clean-up
• Group coaching 
• Working on deliverables

Week 5: Finalising deliverables

• Field survey workshop
• Group coaching
• Finalise deliverables and prepare for pitch

Week 6: Pitching

• Present work to MerTerre, Makesense and other Laidlaw Scholars