June 2025

Galicia presents at the REGP plenary session the management of FLAGs as dynamic agents of coastal territories.

• In the last call for the period 2025-2027, under the FEMPA and with a public support of 14.6 M€, 255 projects for the participatory local development were presented in Galicia.
• The General Director of Fisheries Development and the Managing Director of CETMAR participated at the meeting of the Spanish Network of Fisheries Groups, held in Tenerife.

A total of 255 projects were presented to the call of the Consellería do Mar under the Participatory Local Development Strategies in the period 2025-2027. It was published in February 2025, with a public aid of 14.6 million euros, and co-financed by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFF),  This is the third aid published by the Department in this FEMPA period for the implementation of Community-Led Local Development (CLLD). In the previous two, 187 projects were approved with an  investment of 30.6 million euros, 15.6 million in public aid and 15 million in private investment.

Thus, 45% of these projects are aimed at product valorisation, 24% at product diversification, 3% at governance to make the sea-industry chain profitable and 28% at dissemination of socio-cultural and environmental heritage linked to the Galician coastline.
These data were reported by the Director General of Fisheries Development, Marta Villaverde, at the plenary session of the Spanish Network of Fisheries Groups that took place in Tenerife.  The managing director of CETMAR, Rosa Chapela, also participated as a geographical expert of Famenet.

Role of CETMAR

Rosa Chapela presented the conclusions of the Famenet report on the evaluation of local fisheries action groups in Europe (FLAGs). This study determines the value of the FLAGs in the local development of European fishing areas and their importance for  diversification projects on cultural fishing heritage, environmental protection or the increase in the added value of fisheries and aquaculture products.

In this sense, Ms. Chapela stressed their importance in local governance and in the generation of employment, being the point of the FEMP that generated more jobs,  according to the study of Famenet.  Its role as an active and decisive agent to bring Europe closer to local communities was also highlighted.
The second interventions of the director of CETMAR dealt with the relevant role of these groups as agents of development, promotion and boosting of the blue economy in coastal communities. She also spoke about the experience of the Blue Economy Strategy of Galicia, its participatory processes and the axes of activity linked to local development.

CETMAR celebrates world oceans day with a participatory campaign to collect words related to the sea

To celebrate the World Oceans Day, which is commemorated on 8th June, CETMAR is launching a participatory campaign under the title ‘Un Mar de Falas’.

The aim is to immerse in the collective imagination the diversity of voices and words linked to the sea and collect all of them.

The campaign, which starts today in the different social media of CETMAR, is articulated through a unique hashtag #UnMarDeFalas. Any language is welcome.

How can you participate?

1. Choose a word: e.g. ‘fishnet’, ‘tide, ‘conch…”…

2. Share its context: an anecdote, an associated family memory, a verse or the work that describes it.

3. Post on your social media profile with the hashtag #UnMarDeFalas

Then, each contribution will integrate a big wave with all the words collected: a collective mural in digital and physical format representing a testimony of the living marine memory

This initiative, which CETMAR directly links to the SDG 14 target ‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources’, responds to the aim of promoting public participation and environmental awareness through a symbolic approach to the sea.

By inviting citizens to keep and share marine vocabulary, ‘A Sea of Falas’ claims the sea as a common good, at the heart of local culture and identity, and opens doors to co-responsibility in its conservation.

Looking to the future, CETMAR intends to make this initiative an annual event that adds new languages, new people and new words.

Thank you in advance for your participation.

CETMAR participates in the III Galicia Forum on Global Seafood Sustainability in Vigo, which brings together more than 350 participants from 30 countries and 21 experts

• The Regional Minister of the Sea, Alfonso Villares, stated at the opening that sustainability guarantees food sovereignty.
• The managing director of CETMAR, Rosa Chapela, moderated the round table about the scientific vision.

CETMAR participated in the 3rd edition of the Global Seafood Sustainability Forum of Galicia, which brought together in Vigo more than twenty experts in different subjects and gathered more than 350 participants.

The Regional Minister of the Sea, Alfonso Villares; the Mayor of Vigo, Abel Caballero; the Director General of Fisheries and Aquaculture Management, Aurora de Blas, and the President of Fundación Nueva Pescanova, José María Benavent, opened the forum, held at the headquarters of Afundación in Vigo. With the participation of 350 attendees from 30 countries, the debate on sustainability in fisheries and aquaculture was followed in person and online.

At the opening of the forum, promoted by Fundación Nueva Pescanova and the Xunta de Galicia with the support of the Nueva Pescanova Group and ABANCA, Mr. Alfonso Villares recalled that the maritime-fishing sector is one of the most important economic activities in Galicia and, to keep it like that, it must apply the utmost respect for the environment, in balance with the socioeconomic pillar, as the Galician Government advocates in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). This is the way, he said, to avoid dependence on imports from third countries, otherwise the policies would divert towards an unsustainable model.

Mr. Villares stated that sustainability, whose measurement was the focus of the debate, ‘requires collaboration between public and private sectors and active listening, as well as research, innovation and dissemination that must be based on the essential economic profitability of fisheries to guarantee the future in the sea’.

The managing director of CETMAR, Rosa Chapela, moderated the round table on the vision of science and the measurement of sustainability, with the participation of researchers Elena Ojea, from the CIM-University of Vigo, and Fran Saborido Rey, from the Institute of Marine Research-CSIC, together with Madlen Sobkowiak, director of the MSc Global and Sustainable Business EDHEC.