The project will further explore the abilities of these ecosystems in providing goods and services such as tourism, fisheries and ecosystem stability. It will also link natural and social sciences, and thus its results regarding ecosystem variability will not only be of interest to the scientific community but will reach a wide audience, including decision-makers and the general public at large.

As the project will set the basis for an improved 'societal dialogue' between scientists and stakeholders, it was deemed necessary to create this General Public section on the website, to help those without a scientific background understand what SESAME is, what its aims and objectives are, as well as the ways in which the project will potentially affect the future of these valuable ecosystems.

The General Public section contains some background information on the project and the scientific objectives that delineate it, a summary of the activities that will be undertaken in the four-year implementation period, up-to-date news, information relating to the policy and decision makers, as well as links to the participating institutions/organisations and downloadable educational and multimedia material.

Finally, a special section is dedicated to the SESAME cruises and the school competition that has been organised by the SESAME team.

For more information and details of the science behind SESAME, please click on the Scientists link at the homepage.