This secondment by Creocean (S. Thorin) was used to initiate and strengthen a network of Brazilian stakeholders possibly implied within the future MSP development in Brazil. The first week of this secondment was spent at attending the Oil and Gas congress at Rio de Janeiro, meeting companies likely to carry out projects and activities with environmental impacts in the Northeast region and the territory of Pernambuco.

The rest of the secondment was spent in Recife with a variety of meetings:

- Academics at UFPE (B Padovani, A. Costa, M. Araujo) and UFRPE (F. Hazin, P. Travassos, F. Lucena) for reviewing the available data that could be integrated into the MSP DST and build a network of contacts for future use within the Paddle project.

- Non academics: Impact study companies (Triade, Ecopere and Renova foundation); SUAPE harbor (M. Aragao de Melo Gusmao, D. Mallman and D. Cassia dos Santos (State coordinator of coastal management) where future expansion plans are foreseen and environmental surveys could be useful for the Paddle project.; French General Connsulate (R. Louvet); Pernambouco state administration (A. Olinto, National coordinator for coastal zone management).

The purposes of those meetings were to

(1) make the Paddle project known to non-academic entities

(2) gather information on current and future development projects (tourism, industrial, port, fishing and conservation) in order to adapt the Paddle DST model to the actual situation and (3) evaluate the interest of potential end-users in the DST planned to be developed during the Paddle project

A conference was also given to UFRPE students on the oceanographic and environmental impact assessment activities of Creocean.