AMACO – Associação Madeirense para a Conservação Marinha
AMACO is a Madeiran NGO dedicated to marine conservation, generating scientific knowledge about the archipelago's marine ecosystems and rais…
Marine Conservation
Portugal is mostly ocean: AIMM studying cetaceans in the Algarve, Brigada do Mar clearing the coastline, and the Ocean Azores Foundation across nine islands. Care for the sea that shapes the country.
Projects in this focus
MARE-Madeira (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre)
MARE-Madeira is the Madeira pole of the Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, dedicated to research on marine biodiversity and environme…
Sciaena
Sciaena is a Portuguese NGO founded in 2006 dedicated to marine conservation, sustainable fisheries and public awareness of ocean issues. It…
Blue Azores
Blue Azores is a marine conservation programme born in 2019 from a partnership between the Regional Government of the Azores, the Oceano Azu…
CCMAR – Centre of Marine Sciences (Universidade do Algarve)
CCMAR is a non-profit marine research centre at the University of Algarve in Faro that works to understand, protect and explore the ocean th…
Oceano Azul Foundation
An international foundation based in Lisbon that works on ocean conservation through science, policy advocacy and collaboration with decisio…
Ocean Alive
Ocean Alive is Portugal's first cooperative dedicated to protecting the ocean. It works with coastal and fishing communities to conserve sea…
Brigada do Mar
Brigada do Mar is a Portuguese environmental NGO, founded in 2009, that works to decontaminate the coastline and teaches communities about p…
AIMM – Marine Environment Research Association
AIMM is a Portuguese not-for-profit NGO, founded in 2010 and based in the Algarve, that researches and conserves marine species and ecosyste…
Ocean Azores Foundation
A nonprofit on São Miguel, founded by Ali Bullock, that works to protect the ocean around the Azores and its cetacean populations. It is clo…
GEOTA
GEOTA (Grupo de Estudos de Ordenamento do Território e Ambiente) is a national non-profit environmental NGO, active since 1981, working on e…
Marine conservation in Portugal
Portugal governs one of the largest maritime areas in Europe, most of it around the Azores and Madeira rather than the mainland coast. Almost everything difficult about this focus follows from that ratio: a small country, an ocean-sized responsibility.
AIMM studies cetaceans off the Algarve and CCMAR researches from the University of the Algarve. Sciaena works on fisheries policy, Ocean Alive organises with fishing communities as a cooperative, and Brigada do Mar clears coastline. Blue Azores and the Ocean Azores Foundation work across the archipelago, MARE-Madeira from Câmara de Lobos.
Beach cleans and citizen-science surveys are the open door here; the research groups also take students. Related focuses: wetland protection and habitat restoration. Dated activities from these projects are listed in our events calendar.