Saving the Mediterranean: Launch of the WIKI Centennial Expedition

An international coalition of organisations and individuals, alarmed by rising threats from climate change to wildfires, is seeking to engage the public - young and old - through an ambitious three-year multimedia and educational initiative across the Greater Mediterranean.

Monaco -- Over the past century, the Mediterranean Sea, which covers roughly one percent of the global ocean surface, has suffered environmental degradation more extensive than that recorded in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Today, with accelerating speed, it faces a wide and often inadequately addressed array of threats: acidification, global warming, overfishing, mass tourism, microplastic accumulation and much else besides.

To ring the alarm bells, but also to offer practical solutions, a coalition of mainly volunteer advocates – filmmakers, writers, scientists, entrepreneurs, sailors and teachers, alongside scores of schoolchildren - officially launched the WIKI Centennial Expedition/HelpSaveTheMed, a three-pillar storytelling initiative in Monaco on 4 May 2026. Its goals: to raise awareness, advance workable solutions, and substantially deepen youth involvement in protecting this extraordinary sea.

Lionfish, a serious threat - one of the Mediterranean's over 1000 invasive species on sea and on land.

Coastal Marine

As part of the launch activities, the Yacht Club de Monaco, one of the expedition's main partners, hosted a reception for 150 guests, filmed and photographed throughout by a dozen Young Filmmakers and YouthWrites volunteers. An Italian chef served a lunch built around one of the Mediterranean's most pressing ecological problems: the Lionfish. Originally from the Indian Ocean, this highly invasive species entered the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal and is now spreading rapidly, facing no natural predators other than humans.

"By making lionfish part of the local cuisine across the entire Med, we can help contain its numbers," said Enrico Toja, head of Elafonisos Eco, a Greece-based partner NGO. "If we don't halt its spread, it will economically destroy much of the sea's fishing industry."

WIKI sailing into Nice harbour

WIKI Centennial Expedition

Providing Solutions for the Present and Future

Exploring how "the Med" - both at sea and on land - has changed over the past century, and what must urgently be done now, the WIKI Centennial Expedition is a flagship project of Help Save The Med, a multimedia and educational initiative of the Swiss-based non-profit Global Geneva Group. Its symbolic and operational heart is the 106-year-old classic sailing yacht WIKI.

"I own WIKI, but I like to say WIKI actually owns me," says Tom Woods, a multiple Emmy Award-winning cameraman-director, and Chairman and Founder of the WIKI Centennial Expedition. "We've been together for 40 years." Built in 1920 and meticulously restored by Woods, WIKI is both the vessel and face of a 1,000-day, 22,000-nautical-mile journey spanning 24 Mediterranean countries and territories.

WIKI's Centennial Expedition Route

HSTM

The expedition's initial route will take in ports along the French and Italian Rivieras before continuing eastward via the Adriatic, Aegean, the Middle East and North Africa, completing a full circuit of the Mediterranean via Spain and France, with a return to Monaco expected by late 2029. At different stages it will be joined by other sailing craft, while simultaneously producing storytelling articles, videos, photographic essays, cartoons and artwork created by professional journalists as well as the initiative's own Young Filmmakers and YouthWrites teams linked to international scientific and cultural conferences but also lifestyle events from Barcelona to Alexandria.

Dedicated to protecting the Mediterranean's environmental and cultural heritage, the organisation brings together educators, media professionals, NGOs and local communities to drive awareness, education, collaborative solutions and community building across the region.

Wildfires are a growing threat to much of the Greater Mediterranean region, but there are solutions.

FAO

While seeking funding and sponsorship from foundations, corporations and engaged individuals, including the Mediterranean's yachting community, invited to "give back" to this exceptional shared heritage, the project also works with key Knowledge Partners including the Marseille-based Plan Bleu/UNEP programme, UNESCO in Paris and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Switzerland. The recent involvement of CIPRA, the Liechtenstein-based International Commission for the Protection of the Alps of which Monaco is a member, underlines the importance of this seven-country mountain region not only as a crucial "water tower" for the Mediterranean basin, but as a vital transport gateway between northern Europe and the south.

Youth education with experienced storytelling mentors is a key component of the expedition/

HSTM

Three Complementary Pillars

The first pillar is scientific research and collaboration. As WIKI navigates Mediterranean waters, shore-based conferences and festivals are intended to generate both evidence and hope. Woods says that, with adequate funding, Help Save The Med plans to deploy two marine biologists, equipped with scientific instruments, aboard the yacht to gather data throughout the journey, while also supporting various ‘citizen science’ initiatives.

Awareness-raising is the second pillar, with particular emphasis on youth. Dr Pamela Cotte, a Prague-based university educator currently designing the initiative's schools outreach programme, describes the ambition clearly: to build a community of young people across the Greater Mediterranean, and beyond, who understand the region's cultural and environmental challenges and are inspired to become the problem-solvers of the future.

To achieve this, the initiative is developing curricula to be hosted on its website, freely accessible to schools and teachers in all 24 Mediterranean countries and territories. The curricula will include suggested activities and assignments to support educators. Small groups of students - up to 25 at a time - can participate in on-board classes as WIKI moves from port to port, with the aim of welcoming approximately 1,000 students from each of the 24 countries and territories before the expedition ends in 2029, ultimately reaching 24,000 young people directly, with thousands more across the planet from Bangkok to Los Angeles able to join the programme online.

"Many of these kids are incredibly enthusiastic and want to learn. By coming on board, they see themselves as exploring with WIKI and thus being part of the expedition," said Cotte, who is also an avid sailor. "It's also one way for their parents to become involved."

Professional journalists as well as Young Filmmakers and YouthWrites participants will be reporting both on land and at sea.

HSTM

The third pillar is media and storytelling. Having gathered scientific data, built shared expertise and raised educational standards, the aim is to train and mentor young writers and filmmakers with professionals serving both as content producers and mentors to document the journey through original and credible stories, and build genuine understanding of the communities, cultures and people they encounter along the route.

The storytelling programme, covering themes from wildfires and overfishing to the erosion of UNESCO-listed cultural heritage sites, rewilding, drought, early-warning systems and sustainable tourism, will be led by Woods alongside Ed Girardet, author and veteran journalist, who is also editor of Global Geneva. Drawing on more than 40 years of combined experience covering conflict, humanitarian crises and environmental issues worldwide, Woods and Girardet will work with a corps of scientists, writers, photographers, videographers and cartoonists, equipping participants with skills applicable not just to this project but to their own educational and professional futures.

"The multimedia aspect is extremely important for a variety of reasons. It is absolutely crucial to collaborate with young people and give them access and real-world skills for understanding and producing credible media, so as to reach out to diverse global audiences, both young and old, and help people better grasp what is at stake," says Girardet. "For example, a lot of scientists cannot write for general audiences. Our job is to get them to write articles and help them edit so they can be understood by the broader public because we want their expertise. They have really good stories to tell," he adds.

Youth Engagement is Crucial

The young participants themselves appear genuinely engaged with the mission.

Victoria Perrier, a French volunteer and filmmaking student, admits she knew little about the Mediterranean before joining the expedition, but says her participation is already broadening both her skills and understanding of the sea's plight. "I grew up on the Pacific Ocean, in New Caledonia, so I like oceans and boats, but I didn't know about the Mediterranean. This is a good way of learning about the culture and values, and how we can protect the sea," she says.

Another volunteer, Hanna Khakymova, a Ukrainian refugee now living in Paris, came down especially to provide her skills as a photographer. “For me, this is an incredible opportunity even if Ukraine’s position on the Black Sea is not directly part of the Mediterranean.” Nevertheless, as the organizers point out, both the Black and Red Seas are closely linked to “the Med” as far as the Expedition is concerned.

The organisers are clear-eyed about one fundamental challenge: producing excellent content counts for little without a broad distribution channel. To address this, the project has partnered with Med.TV, a Malta-based free-to-air television network available to over 200 million households across the Mediterranean and Europe. With all content produced in the public interest at no cost to viewers, the WIKI initiative also intends to collaborate with local newspapers, magazines and digital platforms across the region.

"This partnership reflects Med.TV's core mandate - to celebrate, connect and help safeguard the Mediterranean's extraordinary cultural and natural heritage. Wiki's Centennial Expedition is not only a remarkable journey, but a meaningful platform for education, collaboration and awareness," says Anton Tabone, Founder and Chairman of Med.TV.

The ambition extends well beyond the Mediterranean's 550 million permanent residents, stretching from Lebanon to Spain. The initiative also hopes to reach the nearly 360 million tourists, the majority from central and northern Europe, who travel to the region each year. "By bringing these stories to audiences across the region and beyond, we aim to foster a deeper appreciation of what makes the Mediterranean unique and what is at stake if it is not protected," Tabone adds.

Peyman is an American journalist and writer, who has also served as a UN communications officer. He is author of two current affairs fictions: The Age of Intolerance and The Misfit Radical.