A 3-day clean-up mission of plastic waste and various activities, camping, cycling, hiking and diving, will be organised in Kerkennah from June 25 to 27, 2021, by the World Wide Fund for Nature North Africa (WWF-NA) and the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier CIHEAM Montpellier.
The objective of this event, named “Clean-Up Kerkennah’s Wetlands”, is to highlight the local dynamics engaged to make Kerkennah a pilot territory, a living laboratory of fight against plastic pollution and protection of island ecosystems in Tunisia, taking into account the environmental and economic particularities of this exceptional archipelago.
Organised in partnership with the Municipality of Kerkennah, Tunisie Recyclage, Abysse Plongée, the Institut National des Sciences et Technologies de la Mer (INSTM) and Tounes Clean-Up, the initiative is part of the continuity of the activities implemented as part of the “Kerkennah Plastic Free” strategy developed by the DEVLOK project.
“DEVLOK” is a local development project, financed by the European Union Delegation in Tunisia, which aims to set up economic and social initiatives that meet the expectations of the local population and enhance the resources of the territory.
WWF-NA and CIHEAM Montpellier launched a study last April on the state of plastic pollution in the Kerkennah Islands with the aim of supporting the clean-up of plastic waste in the Kerkennah Islands.
WWF-NA indicated that the production of plastic waste in Kerkennah is estimated at 7000 tonnes per year. The existence of a single private licensed collector and the recent opening of the controlled landfill do not allow to contain this pollution and prevent it from invading public spaces and the land and sea environment.
This pollution, by its omnipresence, has become a major environmental and health issue. The presence of plastic in the seabed destroys the living environment of various marine species and threatens the health of consumers through its decomposition, as many fishermen have testified.
Furthermore, this pollution has a strong impact on the tourism sector by disfiguring the natural landscapes of the archipelago. In doing so, it also compromises the economic future of the island, which is mainly based on these natural resources.
This observation is shared by all of the territory’s dynamic forces, but the figures that illustrate the real state of plastic pollution do not exist or, in the best of cases, are very sketchy.
The study in question on the qualification and quantification of the state of pollution in the Kerkennah islands thus aims to fill in the absence of figures on the real state of plastic pollution in the archipelago and to promote the process of its clean-up.

Source: TAP News Agency