The IRN PASSPORT-2C
2022-2025Protocols Adapted to the South for Studying the Plastic Origins and River Transfers : from the Cities to the Coast
Origin
The scientific community interested in the topic of plastic pollution in the environment is growing worldwide. However, developing countries, pointed out as emitting the most plastic to the ocean, are still understudied and plastic pollution poorly understood. The lack of facilities and technical support to develop adapted methodologies or the lack of national and regional coordination among the different stakeholders may explain this difference. The IRD scientific research community, bringing together French and foreign research teams from global South, can tackle this gap and promote a scientific approach adapted to the South.The network
PASSPORT 2C is proposed to address key methodological issues to promote interdisciplinary approaches and exchanges and to facilitate their transfer and further comparisons between worksites. Its focus will primarily be on the transfer of plastics (micro and macro) from Land to Ocean, with a special attention paid to the City to Coast component in the intertropical zones, including rivers, estuaries, delta, mangroves, lagoons and bays. Thus, the aim of PASSPORT 2C is i) to promote exchanges between partners, ii) sharing and development of sober, virtuous, robust, sustainable methodologies adapted to the intertropical ecosystems, for studying plastic transfer from city to coast. These methodologies are based on field and lab analytical protocols, model parameterizations, deep learning image analysis, social survey and participatory observatories. The GDRI ambition is finally to bring the voice of sustainable science at the global South on this topic in order to ultimately strengthen the inclusion of Southern partners within the International Scientific Committees.Objectives
To do that, the GDRI will be organised around three main objectives:Objective 1) to construct and lead a network of scientists including the global South to open and feed the discussion on key methodological issues and their adaptation to the South;
Objective 2) to transfer the methodologies adapted to the South between the Souths and conduct a reflective approach on past projects to enhance capitalization and sharing;
Objective 3) to participate to local or regional expert committees, network or programs to bring the voice of sustainable science at the global South and reinforce the inclusion of Southern partners.
The GDRI PASSPORT 2c will be a living network gathering scientists involved in research projects on plastic transfer at the city to coast continuum in intertropical zones. It will be open to any members of an UMR, southern laboratory, southern NGO, UN organization, or local decision makers who will have an interest in participating to the discussions and who willadhere and participate to the achievement of its goals.