Mediterranean Action Plan

The Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) strives to protect the environment and to foster sustainable development in the Mediterranean basin, signed by 16 Mediterranean States and the EC, under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Its legal framework comprises the Barcelona Convention adopted in 1976 and revised in 1995, and six protocols covering specific aspects of environmental protection. The following are programs within the framework of the MAP:

a. GEF Strategic Partnership on the Mediterranean

Members and organization

The project proposal for a “Strategic Action Program to address pollution from Land-based sources in the Mediterranean” was adopted by the contracting parties of the MAP, and supported by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). To accelerate implementation on the ground, a Strategic Partnership was proposed.

Aims and objectives

• helping the countries to achieve the targets set by providing them with technical assistance, with capacity building and with strengthening the legal and institutional frameworks

• assisting individual countries to make investments in limiting transboundary pollutants to acceptable levels, meeting the targets set in the Strategic Action Program

Selected key outputs

A project for determining priority actions for elaboration and implementation of the Strategic Action Program for the Mediterranean Sea was accepted into the GEF Work Program in 1998. The project has started mid-2000 with GEF and Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance Program (METAP) grants. The implementing agency is UNEP. For more details please consult the project fiche.

b. Partnership for the Adriatic

Members and organization

The participating countries are Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania. The overall project will cost $100 million of which GEF grant will cover $20-25 million, partnerships are being sought with Greece and Italy.

Aims

• reducing land based sources of pollution

• improving water quality to help the participating countries meet the objectives of the 1976 Barcelona Convention

Activities

The Partnership focuses on coastal water management, the ecosystem and tourist development. The main components of the partnership are the creation of a common monitoring framework as well as country specific investments in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment and solid waste management.

c. Adriatic-Ionian initiative

Members and organization

The Adriatic-Ionian Initiative (pdf) was formally established in Ancona in 2000 between Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Serbia and Montenegro.

Aims and objectives

• To link together coastal countries of the Adriatic and Ionian sea to cooperate for the development and safety of the whole area

Activities

In a Roundtable on Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development, a framework document called the Adriatic Action Plan (AAP) was adopted at the environmental ministers’ meeting in June 2003 held in Zadar, Croatia. The Adriatic Action Plan aims to link together the initiative countries in efforts to reduce the negative impacts of human activities in the Adriatic-Ionian basin and is adapted to EU standards and requirements.

Selected key outputs

• The Slovenian presidency (pdf) convened a Meeting of Environmental Ministers of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative in October 2003. At this meeting three implementing protocols were presented:

1. Contingency plan for the Adriatic: the trilateral Croatian-Italian-Slovenian Contingency Plan for the Adriatic provides the basis for a Contingency Plan for the entire Adriatic-Ionian Sub-region and thereby for the implementation of the Prevention and Emergency Protocol on a sub-regional level. The Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) technically assists all countries in the preparation of a Sub-regional contingency Plan. Financial resources from donor agencies and entities should be sought and provided in order to speed up and facilitate the process.

2. Strategic Environmental Assessment of Maritime Activities including Ballast Water Issue: aims to reduce activities related to the introduction of ballast water into the Adriatic ecosystem, including the use of mechanisms defined in the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA, Kiev, 21 May 2003). A Croatian-Italian-Slovenian Adriatic Sea Ballast Water Management Task Force has been established. Slovenia proposes the expansion of the second phase of the project “Harmful Introduction and Ballast Management” in Slovenian maritime waters at least to the North Adriatic.

3. Integrated Coastal Zone Management: the Action Plan recommends the implementation of EU Recommendation ICZM/2002/413/EC on Integrated Coastal Zone Management. There is a need for further strengthening of co-operation among countries and with international institutions in the field of sustainable management of the marine environment and conversation of marine habitats.