ENFORCEMENT OF LEGAL INSTRUMENTS TO BOOST ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION

On the occasion of the two World Days dedicated respectively to the Environment and Oceans, which took place on 5 and 8 June 2021 respectively, UNEP / MAP has drawn up several articles in order to mark these two events in the Mediterranean Region. The 2021 edition of World Environment Day has been marked by the formal launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021 – 2030 while the one of World Oceans Day has celebrated the theme “The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods”. These two themes are intertwined, especially in the Mediterranean context, because ecosystem restoration, that have suffered degradation or destruction, and conservation of these latter are essentiel to preserving marine life and livelihoods.

The UNEP/MAP-Barcelona Convention system has made significant progress in building a robust legal framework that supports the restoration of dammaged marine and coastal ecosystems and ensures the protection of healthy ones. However compliance and enforcement - or not - of legal instruments constitute areas where swift and resolute action by the Contracting Parties can deliver significant benefits for the region and its peoples. This is a crucial building block for a green renaissance in the post-COVID era.

There is an opportunity to harness efforts for a post-pandemic recovery in order to accelerate enforcement and compliance of these legal instruments under the Barcelona Convention and its Protocoles at the national level: This would represent the best chance for the Mediterranean Region to make peace with nature, at a hitherto unprecedented pace and scale, but also would constitue a well-defined and straightforward path that would translate into a ‘quantum leap’ towards sustainability and resilience in the entire region.

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