LAUNCHING OF THE 2020 MEDITERRANEAN MPA FORUM PROCESS
The Specially Protected Areas Regional Activity Centre (SPA/RAC) of the UNEP-Mediterranean Action Plan, the Network of Marine Protected Areas Managers in the Mediterranean (MedPAN), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) through its Mediterranean Programme, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and their partners, have launched the process related to the third edition of the Forum of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Mediterranean.
This third edition aims mainly to deliver an operational and concrete “Post-2020 Roadmap for Mediterranean MPAs” to achieve MPA targets in line with international commitments, and especially the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, that will be agreed upon in 2021 by the CBD COP 15.
Worth mentioning that the SPA/RAC is currently in the process of preparing the “Post-2020 Strategic Action Programme for the Conservation of Biodiversity and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in the Mediterranean Region” (Post-2020 SAP BIO), and will be developing the “Post-2020 Regional Strategy on marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures”, both under the framework of the Barcelona Convention’s SPA/BD Protocol, to be submitted to the forthcoming Barcelona Convention COP 22 in late-2021. The Post-2020 MPA Roadmap is, therefore, of crucial importance to the Barcelona Convention and SPA/RAC. Indeed, this roadmap, being prepared based on a wide participative process, including equally all MPA stakeholders in the region, would certainly feed the Barcelona Convention’s post-2020 strategies.
The 2020 MPA Forum process will be carried out in two major steps.
The first step is an online consultation process, consisting of a series of working groups made of a panel of invited stakeholders, that will be held in November 2020. This step will allow the preparation of a first draft of the Post-2020 MPA Roadmap. Working group exchanges will be fed by the results of a short questionnaire aimed at identifying the main limiting factors that Mediterranean MPAs face. This survey has been disseminated in October 2020 among the wide MPA community. The preliminary draft of the roadmap will be then discussed and pre-finalized during Virtual Forum Sessions scheduled from the 1st to the 5th of February 2021 (save the date!).
The second and final step will be a face-to-face event in 2021 or 2022 to finalise the Post-2020 MPA Roadmap, following the outcomes of global and regional strategic processes.
More information will be shared soon on the MPA Forum website: www.medmpaforum.org
Forum partners:
ACCOBAMS, Conservatoire du littoral, European Commission (DG Environment), European Topic Centre/University of Malaga (ETC-UMA) /Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community (MBPC), IUCN Mediterranean Cooperation Centre (IUCN-Med), French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), The MedFund, Mediterranean Small Islands Initiative (PIM)
With the financial support of:
Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, European Commission (through the IMAP-MPA Project), MAVA Foundation, French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM), INTERREG-Med MPA NETWORKS Project, INTERREG- Med Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community (MBPC) Project, French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), City of Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône Department