“Banquette to the rescue!” is the title of the CARTOON created by Ispra to show the important ecological role of the posidonia that washes up onto beaches, adopting an alternative management model to promote its reuse from the point of view of a circular economy.

The beaches of the Mediterranean Sea are unique in the world in hosting the remnants of posidonia oceanica, which form structures called “banquettes”; they have a key role not only in preserving beaches, but also coastal ecosystems.

Their removal is a harmful practice, which can seriously compromise the integrity of the entire coastal habitat (beaches, dunes): in fact, in addition to removing large amounts of sand, it deprives beaches of their natural protection from storm surges. It also removes the biomass and nutrients still present in the material washed up, which represent an important source for both coastal ecosystems and for seagrass meadows themselves, with the ensuing loss of biodiversity.

The “BARGAIN” project which promotes the dissemination of information on posidionia is supported by the Lazio Region and involves, in addition to ISPRA, the University of Tor Vergata and ENEA (C. R. Casaccia).