Giacomo D'Alì Staiti (SOSALT) and Fabrizo Vicari (ResourSEAS) represented and disseminated the SEArcularMINE project at the MedArtSal meeting, held at the Ettore Infersa saltworks in Trapani on the 16th of September 2022

The innovative MedArtSal project aims to promote the sustainable development of the Artisanal Salinas within the Mediterranean basin, developing new business models for artisanal saltworks.

Salinas across Mediterranean are today facing many pressures due to social values change and economic stresses; the market of their products is subject to strong competition from cheaper land-produced salt and the world trade. Faced with the need to be economically viable, salinas are confronted with the choice of closing, industrializing the production or changing the business orientation towards sustainable tourism and new artisanal products, already successfully experienced. A sustainable production of salt may deeply stimulate the development of other sectors (business, tourism, and environment), while increasing biodiversity. The abandonment of saltworks is considered negative for local salt culture and sometimes for biodiversity and therefore accelerates further loss of cultural and natural heritage.  There are several salinas behind the MedArtSal project, all of them recognized for their more traditional salt harvesting methods, as our most remote ancestors did. Specifically, 14 salt pans from Italy, Spain, Lebanon and Tunisia

Also among those present were Antonis Doumanoglou from the Hellenic saltworks, representing the EUSalt association (see picture left to right Giacomo D'Alì Staiti, Fabrizo Vicari, Antonis Doumanoglou).