We are a second-year class from Srednja škola Metković in Croatia, participating in the Open Cohesion School (ASOC) programme. In cooperation with a partner school from Italy, we are developing a civic monitoring project focused on common environmental issues of the Adriatic Sea.

At the beginning of our work, we chose to follow the MAPA – Marine Adriatic Parks project because of its relevance for our coastal region and its long-term impact, even though the project is implemented by the Zadar Rural Agency, which operates outside our local area.

Our team consists of about 25 students and works under the name BlueWaves Metković, highlighting both our connection to the sea and our cross-border partnership. We organised the team by assigning roles, created the project Canvas, and opened official social media channels to share our activities.

We are currently studying the MAPA project in more detail to better understand its objectives, actions, and expected results. At the same time, we are learning how to use the OpenCohesion portal, working with open data, and planning interviews with experts to support our civic monitoring work.