TLDR
- ReLiMa is a four year project (2026 to 2030) building waste management systems in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe to cut plastic leakage into the ocean.
- Led by the University of Rostock and BlackForest Solutions, financed by Germany’s Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Klimaschutz, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit (BMUKN) through ZUG, the project runs on four work packages: baseline data, community pilots, financial mechanisms including Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), and policy support. Target by 2030: 45 permanent jobs, 135 policymakers engaged, 300 community members involved directly.
Three islands, one shared problem
Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe depend on tourism and fishing. These places depend on clean water. Plastic waste keeps arriving, carried in by ocean currents, dropped by cruise ships, discarded by fishing fleets. It puts pressure on both, and none of the three countries has the waste infrastructure built to absorb it.
ReLiMa (Redução do Lixo Marinho, Portuguese for Marine Litter Reduction) is a four-year response to that gap, running from 2026 to 2030. It is financed by Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUKN) through Zukunft Umwelt Gesellschaft (ZUG)’s Grant Programme against Marine Litter, under project code GPML-233-21. Seven organizations make up the consortium: the University of Rostock, BlackForest Solutions, Landbell Group, UNESCO, and the three national implementing partners, Associação para a Defesa do Ambiente e Desenvolvimento (ADAD) in Cape Verde, Tiniguena in Guinea-Bissau, and Oikos in São Tomé and Príncipe.
The project is structured around four work packages. Each one solves a different part of the same problem.
Work package 1: Baseline assessment (2026)
Before anything gets built, someone has to measure what is already there. WP1 maps existing waste flows, informal collection networks, and current plastic leakage points across all three countries during 2026. This sounds unglamorous next to community pilots and financial instruments, but skipping it is where circular economy projects usually go wrong quietly: without a baseline, nobody can prove what the intervention actually changed.
Work package 2: Pilot interventions (2026 to 2030)
WP2 runs for the full length of the project. It puts prevention and recycling systems directly into communities, using what the project calls the Satellite Island Recycling Concept, a model designed for small, dispersed island geography rather than the centralized recycling plants used in larger countries.
The pilots are built to be economically self-sustaining from the outset, not demonstration projects that stop working once the funding period ends. That distinction matters more than it sounds. Plenty of marine litter projects generate strong opening numbers and quietly wind down within a year of the grant closing.
Work package 3: Financial mechanisms (2027 to 2028)
This is where Landbell Group leads. WP3 designs and tests financial instruments, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), deposit return schemes, and plastic credits, so that waste management has a funding source that outlasts the grant itself.
EPR shifts the cost of managing a product’s end of life back onto whoever produced or imported it, rather than leaving it with the municipality or the informal collector. In three different island economies with three different regulatory starting points, that means three separate design processes running in parallel, not a single template copied three times.
Work package 4: Policy and capacity building (2026 to 2030)
WP4 runs the full length of the project alongside WP2. It works directly with national Ministries of Environment on policy development and builds in-country training curricula that stay with local institutions after the project ends. UNESCO sits in this work package as political advisor, connecting ReLiMa to its Man and the Biosphere Programme, which gives the project a link to broader biosphere reserve governance, relevant in Guinea-Bissau’s Bijagós Archipelago in particular.
Who does what?
Seven partners, one system:
The University of Rostock holds the academic lead, anchoring the baseline methodology and evaluation framework. BlackForest Solutions handles technical implementation across the four work packages. Landbell Group designs the financial mechanisms in WP3. UNESCO advises on policy alignment. ADAD, Tiniguena, and Oikos are the national partners actually running community engagement and pilots on the ground in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe respectively, each working directly with their national government.
None of these roles substitute for another. A financing mechanism without a pilot running alongside it stays theoretical. A pilot without financing behind it stops the day the grant does.
What success looks like by 2030?
Three principles guide how the project measures itself:
- Local ownership first, meaning decisions get made with national institutions, not handed down to them.
- Durable systems over one-off collection events.
- South-South learning, meaning what works in Cape Verde gets tested and adapted in Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe, not treated as a one-off case study.
The numeric targets: three Small Island Developing States (SIDS) supported with tailored circular models, at least 45 permanent jobs created in-country, at least 135 policymakers engaged across the three nations, and at least 300 community members directly involved in the pilot work.
FAQ
What does ReLiMa stand for?
ReLiMa stands for Redução do Lixo Marinho, Portuguese for Marine Litter Reduction. It is a four year project (2026 to 2030) reducing plastic pollution in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
Who funds ReLiMa?
ReLiMa is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUKN), channeled through Zukunft Umwelt Gesellschaft (ZUG)’s Grant Programme against Marine Litter, project code GPML-233-21.
Who leads the ReLiMa project?
The University of Rostock holds the academic lead and BlackForest Solutions leads technical implementation, working alongside Landbell Group, UNESCO, and three national partners: ADAD, Tiniguena, and Oikos.
What is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the context of ReLiMa?
EPR is a financial mechanism where producers and importers fund the collection, sorting, and recycling of the waste their products generate, rather than leaving that cost with municipalities. Landbell Group leads EPR design under ReLiMa’s third work package.
What are the four work packages of ReLiMa?
Baseline assessment (2026), pilot interventions (2026 to 2030), financial mechanisms including EPR (2027 to 2028), and policy development and capacity building (2026 to 2030).
What is the Satellite Island Recycling Concept?
It is ReLiMa’s model for recycling infrastructure adapted to small, dispersed island geography, used across the pilot work in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe instead of a single centralized recycling plant per country.
Follow project updates on the ReLiMa project’s LinkedIn page.