The Galician-Northern Portugal Cooperation Area (CA) share the need to find sustainable solutions to preserve the services provided by ecosystems. Climate neutrality is a challenge for all of Europe, and also for this CA. Most human activities involve the emission of greenhouse gases, while nature can work as carbon sinks, such as salt marshes or seagrass meadows, known as “Blue Carbon Ecosystems”. These ecosystems, in addition to a very high biodiversity, provide other traditional services such as fishing or shellfish that are already influenced by climate change. Thus, there is a joint need to identify threats, vulnerabilities and climatic risks that these coastal areas face and to implement coordinated actions for their preservation. The objective of CAPTA is to establish the bases for the development of joint planning policies and instruments that facilitate the achievement of climate neutrality and allow us to strengthen the coastal ecosystem services, improving their resilience. CAPTA will allow the creation of a cross-border cooperation framework on these issues, making available protocols and comparative information on climate risks and allowing the definition of joint implementation measures. The role of carbon sinks historically provided by some ecosystems in this Euroregion and the integration of remote sensing technologies will serve as a basis for tools to facilitate decision making. The use of combined technologies will allow defining a common assessment procedure in salt marshes and seagrass meadows on both sides of the border – Galiza and Northern Portugal.
