Title:

Regional Project for the Development of a Mediterranean Marine and Coastal Protected Areas (MPAs) Network through the boosting of MPAs Creation and Management

Total duration:

60 months

Context:

The MedMPAnet project is part of the MedPartnership GEF full size project “Strategic Partnership for the Mediterranean Sea Large Ecosystem” led by UNEP/MAP. The objective of the MedPartnership project is to leverage reforms and investments to address marine and coastal biodiversity conservation priorities for the Mediterranean.

The MedPartnership project includes 4 components: component 1: “Integrated approaches for the implementation of the Strategic Action Programmes (SAPs) and National Action Programmes (NAPs): Integrated Costal Zone Management (ICZM), IWRM and management of coastal aquifer”, component 2: “Pollution from land based activities, including Peristen Organic Pollutants: Implementation of SAP-MED”, component 3: “Conservation of biological diversity: Implementation of SAP BIO and related National Action Plans”, component 4: “Project coordination, replication and communication strategies, management and M&E”.

Component 3 specifically addresses the decline of biodiversity and the decline of fisheries in the Mediterranean and further branches off in 2 subcomponents: sub-component 3.1: conservation of coastal and marine diversity through the development of a Mediterranean MPA network and sub-Component 3.2: Promotion of the sustainable use of fisheries resources through the application of ecosystem-based management approaches.

Component 3.1 is implemented through two complementary projects, the MedMPAnet project led by RAC/SPA and the MedPAN South Project led by WWF Mediterranean.

Objectives:

The objective of the project consists in ‘enhancing the effective conservation of regionally important coastal and marine biodiversity features, through the creation of an ecologically coherent MPA network in the Mediterranean region’, as required by Barcelona Convention's Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean (SPA/BD Protocol). This will effectively expand the existing Network of MPA Managers in the Mediterranean - MedPAN to include the rest of the Mediterranean and assist the country partners to implement the prioritized elements of the Strategic Action Programme for the Conservation of Biological Diversity (SAP BIO) in the Mediterranean Region through the provision of a series of enabling activities at national, sub-regional and regional levels.

Beneficiary countries:

12 Mediterranean riparian countries: Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Montenegro, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. The Palestinian Authority is also intended to be involved.

Target group(s):

MPAs managers, practitioners and relevant authorities in the countries non EU Parties to the Barcelona Convention

Main activities:

A set of activities will be implemented around 4 action categories:

• Demonstration projects on MPAs creation and financial analysis and sustainability mechanism in Albania, Croatia, Libya, Tunisia and Montenegro,
• Establishment of priority activities to create MPAs, identification of stakeholders & potential partnership required and characterization of marine sites suitable to become MPAs,
• Exchange of experience and training to improve new/existing MPAs management,
• Communication on the results and achievements of the project and public awareness.

Estimated results :

• Implementation of actions prioritised by the SAPBIO project.
• Existing and proposed MPAs will coalesce to form part of a coherent and geographically balanced network that exists at both institutional and ecological levels.
• Greater representation of the Mediterranean’s vulnerable and critical coastal and marine habitats brought under statutory protection.
• Tools and capacity for the management of recognized Mediterranean coastal and marine biodiversity sites improved.
• Permanent coordination, monitoring, evaluation and support mechanisms for regional coastal and marine biodiversity conservation.
• Innovative approaches to the funding of regionally important existing and future coastal and marine biodiversity conservation initiatives in place.

For more information on the MedMPAnet Project, please contact :

car-asp@spa-rac.org

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