THE MEDITERRANEAN BLUEPRINT

The Mediterranean countries already have a blueprint for biodiversity conservation in the Mediterranean. Indeed,  under the Barcelona Convention, the Contracting Parties have signed up to a substantial development of the normative framework on biodiversity conservation in the Mediterranean. In addition to the SPA/BD Protocol, the Contractiong Parties have adopted more than twenty strategies, action plans and regulatory measures—several of which are legally binding—covering threatened species of fauna and flora as well as key natural habitats.

These legal above-indicated instrument have been developed by SPA/RAC, the Regional Activity Centre of UNEP/MAP working on biodiversity and specially protected areas and aligne with global commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), constituting a ready-made blueprint in order to mending the dysfunctional relationship between humans and nature in the Mediterranean region.

An important element of the regional conservation blueprint devised under the Barcelona Convention for the Mediterranean, namely the post-2020 Strategic Action Programme for the Conservation of the Biological Diversity and sustainable use of natural resources in the Mediterranean Region (post-2020 SAPBIO), will be examined during this year by the Contracting Parties at their COP 22, scheduled in December in Antalya, Turkey. The post-2020 SAPBIO draft recommend nature-based solutions as tools to improve the health of ecosystems and promote sustainability in key sectors of Mediterranean economies, including aquaculture. Once adopted, the post-2020 SAPBIO should give priority to the planning of urgent actions at the regional and national levels for the sustainable management of Mediterranean biodiversity until 2030.