Med News 03/2020

This year many regional institutions and partners as well as members of the public joined UNEP/MAP in marking the 2020 edition of Coast Day. 

Although the main ceremony initially planned in Malta could not take place on 25 September, a digital campaign highlighted the importance of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and, more broadly, of sustainable consumption and production in the region.

The digital campaign

 The campaign’s page offered visitors resources and communication assets ranging from a lexicon to a collection of facts and figures on the situation of the Mediterranean Coast, based on PAP/RAC’ work and the latest assessment reports produced by the UNEP/MAP-Barcelona Convention System and our Partners. 

The campaign also featured messages from the UNEP/ MAP Coordinator Gaetano Leone and the Director of PAP/RAC Zeljka Skaricic , as well as a video message by the Ambassador for the Coast Oliviero Montanaro. 

The digital campaign was rolled out with a slogan—  “The Mediterranean needs you. If you put a seashell to your ear, you will hear it calling”— and with calls to action:

• Visit the Coast Day 2020 page and learn more about the pressing issues affecting the Mediterranean Sea and Coast.
• Translate and share information in your local network with the #CoastDay #Act4Med hashtags.
• Use the Coast Day logo, sew it into your reusable face mask or use it to brand an online discussion with your friends and colleagues.
• Download the UNEP/MAP SeaWatcher App (powered by INFO/RAC) on your mobile device and report marine litter you stumble upon on the Mediterranean coast.
• If you can ensure that social distancing rules are strictly met, organise a beach cleaning campaign and send us the photos.

The EU4OCEAN coalition notably marked Mediterranean Coast Day as part of a its efforts to pave the way for collective Ocean Literacy initiatives in the Mediterranean Sea. An online workshop that took place on 25 September was organised by ACTeon (France, on behalf of the consortium supporting the European Commission/DG MARE EU4Ocean coalition), the UNEP/MAP-Barcelona Convention Secretariat, PAP/RAC, Plan Bleu, the Mediterranean branch of the European Marine Science Educator Association (EMSEA) and the BlueMed initiative.

Events held across the region

Albania: Under the motto “Feel natural, think blue” in Durres, an awareness-raising event was organised in the framework of the GEF Adriatic Project by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the National Agency of Protected Areas of Albania. It was followed by a workshop and panel discussion at the Port of Durres on the theme of "Marine resources, the energy of Blue Tourism".

Algeria: In the Wilaya of Tipasa, Mediterranean Coast Day was celebrated in conjunction with the World Maritime Day. The association "Ecologica" from Skikda organised a beach cleaning event during which volunteers collected as much as 23 waste bags.     

Croatia: Literature and arts activities for elementary-school children were held. Children took part in creating a story about the noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis), which is severely attacked by parasites throughout the Mediterranean. The children were also invited to submit their stories and illustrations for a competition. More than 180 contributions were received from all over Croatia. Winners received their awards during a ceremony at the Split-Dalmatia County on the occasion of the World Children’s Day (20 November)—a day when we mark the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes the right to live in a clean and healthy environment. 

Cyprus: The AKTI Project and Research Centre, a non-governmental, non-profit organisation, in collaboration with the Department of Environment, celebrated the  Coast Day 2020 on 25 September through the #potavristou campaign. “potavristou” means “reach out” in the Cypriot dialect, but also conveys the idea of “giving a helping hand”. During September, AKTI, through its social media platforms and with the support of several public media outlets, encouraged the public to collect litter, take a photo, indicate the location and post on social media using the campaign hashtag.  In a  meeting with Dr. Xenia Loizidou, the Ambassador for the Coast 2019 and President of the AKTI, Dr. Costas Kadis, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, said that “Each of us and all together, we can contribute to the mitigation of marine litter problem if we make changes in our lifestyle. Less consumption of single-use plastic products and improvement in their management when they become a waste, can have significant impact on the improvement of marine environment. A healthy marine environment is both a right of all of us and a responsibility to the generations to come”.

Italy: MEDSEA (Mediterranean Sea and Coast Foundation), located in Cagliari, Sardinia, celebrated Mediterranean Coast Day with a virtual choral message for future generations. On 24 September a press conference was held at the Environment Regional Department in Cagliari for the presentation of the Maristanis project. From 25-29 September members of the public were invited to take part in a competition by sharing photos/videos featuring the coasts of Sardinia on Instagram and/or Twitter with the hashtag #CoastDayInSardinia. The winners are listed here. In addition, a live broadcast highlighted the the state of the coasts of Sardinia and the need for action to protect them. 

Malta: a video was produced by the Ministry for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning as part of a campaign on environmental measures for the sea. It has been posted on the website of the  Planning Authority. The video features an introduction by Michelle Borg, Planning Authority representative (and PAP/RAC National Focal Point),  a story by a fisher and sustainable practices in tourism. In his intervention, Dr Aaron Farrugia, the Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning, reminds the viewers that on Mediterranean Coast Day “it is important to remember that we need to continue working together to safeguard the coast to ensure that we leave behind a better coastal environment for future generations than the one we have inherited”. 

Montenegro:  The Public Enterprise “Morsko dobro”, in collaboration with the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism and the Institute for Marine Biology of Kotor, prepared a poster on coral communities with a focus on the gold coral (Gerardia savaglia), a species protected by international and national regulations, the largest populations of which have been noted at 2 locations within the Boka Kotorska bay in Montenegro. Copies of the poster were distributed to relevant institutions, as well as elementary and secondary schools throughout Montenegro.

Morocco: the AGIR (Association for Integrated Resource Management) celebrated Mediterranean Coast Day in collaboration with PAP/RAC and the Faculty of Science and Technology Al Hoceima. On 25 September AGIR organised a webinar for the youth from the Association of the Friends of the Sea of Al Hoceima on threats facing the coast and the types of solutions and responses proposed for the youth to address those impacts. AGIR later organised another webinar on the implementation of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the marine area of the Al Hoceima National Park—a Marine Protected Area (MPA). On 27 September, a live Facebook broadcast by the Association took viewers on a boat trip to the MPA.

Slovenia: The “Mediterranean Coast and Macro-Regional Strategies Week” took place on 14-25 September. The programme included meetings, workshops and seminars.

The guidelines to address single-use plastics through public procurement in the Mediterranean are now available in French, in addition to the English, Albanian and Bosnian-Montenegrin versions.

Public procurement is identified as a key action to address plastic marine litter by the Barcelona Convention.

The guidelines target policy-makers in the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and provide them with a step-by-step approach for developing the appropriate framework to address the reduction of single-use plastics through procurement in the public sector.

By implementing these guidelines, public administrations across the Mediterranean can boost circular economy in the region and abate plastic pollution. This publication has been commissioned by SCP/RAC to Ecoinstitut, as part of the portfolio of activities to improve the policy framework and engage with the food & beverage industry in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro, through the Cooperation Agreement between UN Environment/MAP and the Italian Ministry of Environment and Land and Sea Protection.

The Mediterranean Sea is a biodiversity hotspot. Its conservation requires coordinated action on a regional scale, which at the same time responds to the specificities of each country.

Since Februrary  2020, the SPA/RAC is preparing the Post-2020 Strategic Action Programme for the Conservation of Biodiversity and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in the Mediterranean Region (Post-2020 SAPBIO).

During this period, SPA/RAC elaborated a guidance document on the elaboration process of the Post-2020 SAPBIO, in consultation with the Advisory Committee.

SPA/RAC has also launched the SAPBIO elaboration process at national level through assisting the preparation of national reports by all Parties on current status and challenges of Mediterranean biodiversity and living resources at national level. They are being followed by the organisation of national online workshops from July to October, to identify the priorities and orientations of each Mediterranean country in terms of marine and coastal biodiversity conservation.

National online workshops organized within the SAPBIO elaboration process

The consultations, leaded by the country National Correspondents, involved national stakeholders (government officials, scientists, NGOs representatives and other resource persons) from different fields of expertise as well as their SPA/RAC National Focal Point.

This process of national consultations is almost completed at the moment, and will result in the publication of national reports including in particular:

• the state of marine and coastal biodiversity, with its current impacts and their drivers
• the conclusions and related priority actions
• the national needs in terms of capacity building, data access/sharing, cooperation and financial resource mobilisation.

In a next stage, sub-regional analyses and consultations will be conducted to foster complementarity and harmonisation between the national priority actions, notably those with transboundary nature such as biological invasions, transboundary species populations, climate change, representativity and connectivity of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

Steps for the elaboration of the Post-2020 SAPBIO

The online Workshop to enhance regional cooperation in responding to marine oil and HNS pollution in the Mediterranean (MEDEXPOL 2020) proposed a set of recommendations to progress on the set-up of a common emergency communication and reporting systems, the use of a harmonised regional approach to assess preparedness for oil spill, the finalisation of a highly expected multi-regional chemical spill response manual and the creation of synergies between sub-regional agreements in the Mediterranean. The online workshop was  organised  by REMPEC in close co-operation with the Secretariat General de la Mer (SGMer, France), in the framework of the Western Mediterranean Region Marine Oil and HNS Pollution Cooperation (West MOPoCo) project co-financed by the European Union Civil Protection.

MEDEXPOL 2020 gathered more than 75 participants from 14 countries from the Mediterranean region and 7 countries from the North Sea, the Baltic and Canada, and other partners 

A virtual webinar was organised by REMPEC on 23^rd September, the aim of which was to raise awareness, enhance knowledge and share best practices on the implementation of the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) in the Mediterranean region as well as to present the latest developments regarding the proposed update of the Mediterranean BWM strategy. The Webinar was attended by 69 participants from 16 Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention as well as the IMO, HELCOM, SPA/RAC and representatives from the Odyssea Project. Knowledge was shared on the implementation aspects of and exemptions under the BWM Convention, the Mediterranean BWM strategy and regional cooperation as well as the review of the guidance factsheet related to the common indicator on non-indigenous species within the framework of the Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Programme and related assessment criteria for the Mediterranean Sea and Coast (IMAP).

On 29 June 2020 the Agreement relative to the CAMP project for Bosnia and Herzegovina was signed by Mr. Živko Matuško, Mayor of the town of Neum, for the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ms. Željka Škaričić, PAP/RAC Director, for the Secretariat of the Barcelona Convention (UNEP/MAP). 

This concluded a long preparatory phase for this project and it is now ready for implementation. It will focus on priority issues for their relatively short coastline and will include the establishment of an institutional mechanism for ICZM, monitoring of marine and coastal environment, inventory of marine habitats and protected areas, national contingency plan, sustainable tourism, data management and adaptation to climate change. A series of capacity-building and awareness-raising activities will support the project. Most of UNEP/MAP components will be involved with their technical capacities. The project is envisaged to be completed by July 2022.

Soon after the Agreement was signed the CAMP entered its implementation phase. The inception meeting of its Steering Committee was organised on-line on 15 October 2020. The Steering Committee is composed of seven representatives from different administrative levels and institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and PAP/RAC.

A project logo has been designed by INFO/RAC with the objectives to give identity to this CAMP project as well as to increase its visibility among stakeholders and general public.

The European Union funded IMAP-MPA project coordinated by UNEP/MAP-Barcelona Convention Secretariat and executed by MedPOL and SPA/RAC aims at consolidating and supporting the Ecosystem Approach (EcAp) process for Marine Protected Areas (MPA) management and sustainable development in the Southern Mediterranean countries.

The IMAP-MPA project activities went underway in Tunisia in October 2020 with a first online meeting, to discuss the national integrated monitoring programme of the marine environment and the implementation of the management plan of the north-eastern islets of Kerkennah Archipelago, a future MPA.

The meeting was organized by SPA/RAC on October 7^th, 2020, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Local Affairs and Environment of Tunisia, with the participation of representatives of national authorities and institutions, as well as civil society organizations. 

The meeting selected the sites of Kerkennah (north-eastern islets) and Kuriat, both future MPAs and already benefiting from management measures, and the Gulf of Gabes, which is an area under high pressure, to launch the monitoring activities. The comparison of monitoring results will be used to better understand the impacts of human activities on the marine environment and to set up or adapt management measures as needed. This approach is in line with the Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Programme (IMAP) of the Mediterranean Sea and Coast (Decision IG.22/7) adopted in 2016, by the 19^th Conference of Parties to the Barcelona Convention.

Discussions also focused on the means to be deployed to coordinate and sustain all activities related to the monitoring of the marine environment in Tunisia within the framework of the IMAP regional process. Thus, it was decided to set up, under the aegis of the Ministry of Local Affairs and Environment, a permanent national steering committee for the IMAP programme in Tunisia, that will include three working groups on: Pollution and Marine Litter, Biodiversity and Fisheries, Coast and Hydrography. The national IMAP committee should involve all governmental departments and institutions concerned by these topics, as well as NGOs and resource persons.

The committee will, among other things, ensure a synergistic and coordinated implementation of the activities of the IMAP-MPA project and those of the upcoming EcAp MED III project "The effective implementation of the ecosystem approach based on integrated monitoring and assessment of the Mediterranean Sea and its coasts in synergy with the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)", of which Tunisia is also beneficiary.

Finally, it was recommended to create a national platform for data banking, exchange and communication and to further invest in capacity building of the involved stakeholders.

REMPEC launched a consultation process for the preparation of a Mediterranean Strategy for the Prevention of, and Response to Marine Pollution from Ships for the next ten years

(2022-2031) to address pressures from maritime activities exerted on marine ecosystems in the Mediterranean region.

The consultation process involves national competent authorities from the 22 Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, relevant regional and international institutions and stakeholders addressing challenges and offering expertise, resources, and funding to progress in the improvement of the prevention of and response to marine pollution from ships in the Mediterranean region.

In collaboration with Plan Bleu, MED POL and SPA/RAC, REMPEC prepared a Study on trends and outlook of marine pollution from ships and activities and of maritime traffic and offshore activities in the Mediterranean. The study compiles the best available knowledge on four aspects: pollution from oil and chemicals, marine litter, air pollution, non-indigenous species and underwater noise. A technical report on maritime traffic outlook for the next five, ten and thirty years (2025, 2030, 2050) has been integrated in a revised version of the Study, which is expected to be published in the second half of 2021.

The extended mandate of the SOx ECA Technical Committee of Experts (until 30 April 2021), which was granted at COP 21, has enabled this regional cooperative mechanism to oversee the on-going knowledge gathering and further studies for the implementation of the road map of the possible designation of the Mediterranean Sea, as a whole, as an Emission Control Area for Sulphur Oxides (Med SOx ECA). According to the road map, a series of knowledge gathering and further studies should be carried out systematically and the first outcomes were reviewed by the technical committee. Feedback and comments provided by experts from 17 Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention are under consideration at the moment and will be addressed when finalising the deliverables resulting from the knowledge gathering and further studies.