The Mediterranean Action Plan - how it has evolved

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP), which was launched in Barcelona in 1975 as a regional arrangement to deal with common problems of marine pollution.

Mediterranean coastal states, meeting in Barcelona in 1975, adopted an action plan for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea and the coast. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was entrusted with the task to take the initiative to co-ordinate the activities of the Mediterranean governments to develop and implement this plan.

How did MAP originate and evolve? During the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972, it was recognised that marine pollution was a problem, which called for international co-operation, and that such co-operation could most usefully be focused on a regional level.

One of the concrete results of the Stockholm Conference was the establishment of UNEP. When the first Governing Council of UNEP met in June 1974 it identified marine pollution as a priority area for action.

Within the overall programme for the oceans, the decision was taken to concentrate on the Mediterranean as a region in which to assist States to develop a comprehensive, co-operative programme for the protection and enhancement of the marine environment.

An Intergovernmental Meeting on the Protection of the Mediterranean was convened by UNEP in Barcelona between January 28 to February 4, 1975. Representatives of 16 of the 18 coastal states, including Malta, attended this meeting.

At the end of the meeting, participants adopted an Action Plan consisting of four chapters: 1. Co-ordinated Pollution Monitoring and Research Programme in the Mediterranean; 2. Framework Convention and Related Protocols with their Technical Annexes for the Protection of the Mediterranean Environment; 3. Integrated Planning of the Development and Management of the Resources of the Mediterranean Basin; and 4. Institutional and Financial Implications of the Action Plan.

One year later, in 1976, UNEP convened the Conference of Plenipotentiaries of the Coastal States of the Mediterranean Region on the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea, again in Barcelona.

At this conference three regional agreements were adopted:

1) the Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution;

2) the Protocol for the Prevention of Pollution of the Mediterranean Sea by Dumping from Ships and Aircraft (Dumping Protocol); and

3) the Protocol concerning Co-operation in Combating Pollution of the Mediterranean Sea by Oil and other Harmful Substances in Cases of Emergency (Emergency Protocol).

What made this Barcelona conference particularly noteworthy is that 12 states immediately signed the convention and the Emergency Protocol, and 11 states signed the Dumping Protocol.

The convention was adopted on February 16, 1976. It was viewed as an all-inclusive legal umbrella, providing a general obligation on signatory states to take all appropriate measures to prevent, abate and combat pollution of the Mediterranean Sea area and to protect and enhance the marine environment.

However, it was recognised that protocols were needed if states were to accept more detailed obligations to control pollution. The Convention and the Dumping and Emergency Protocols entered into force on February 12, 1978, a mere two years after they were first adopted.

To provide for the centre referred to in the Emergency Protocol, the 1976 Barcelona Conference of Plenipotentiaries adopted a resolution calling on UNEP, in co-operation with the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organisation (IMCO), to establish a Regional Oil Combating Centre for the Mediterranean Sea.

The centre was officially opened in Malta in December 1976.

The Conference of Plenipotentiaries also called on UNEP and WHO to undertake jointly preparations for an additional protocol to control land-based sources of pollution.

The Protocol for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution from Land-based Sources (LBS Protocol) was adopted on May 17, 1980, but entered into force on June 17, 1983. This has since been amended in 1996 but has not yet entered into force.

The integrated planning activities of the Action Plan have evolved under two main sub-programmes, both of which were approved by the governments of the region at a meeting in Split, Yugoslavia, held between January 31 and February 4, 1977.

The first main subdivision was known as the Blue Plan. It was meant to be a think-tank to increase the awareness of individual policymakers to long-term trends and to make them realise the effect that their decision would ultimately have on the environment. Blue Plan Centre is based in Sophia Antipolis, France.

To combine the principles of environmental management with the knowledge and experience available in the region a Priority Action Programme (PAP/RAC) was established in 1978. It is located in Split, Croatia.

Other programmes and regional activity centres have been established, including the Programme for the Assessment and Control of Pollution in the Mediterranean Region (MED-POL), based in Athens, the centre for Specially Protected Areas (SPA/RAC), which focuses on biodiversity and is located in Tunisia, the Environment Remote Sensing (ERS/RAC) centre, located in Italy, the Cleaner Production (CP/RAC) centre established in 1996 with offices in Spain, and the Programme for the Protection of Coastal Historic Sites (100HS), based in France.

Other important protocols include the Specially Protected Areas and Biodiversity Protocol, which was adopted on June 10, 1995, replaced the SPA Protocol of 1982. It entered into force on December 12, 1999.

Two other protocols, the Offshore and Hazardous Waste protocols adopted on October 14, 1994, and October 1, 1996, respectively, have not yet entered into force.

One major development was the setting up in 1996 of the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development (MCSD) as a think-tank on policies for promoting sustainable development in the Mediterranean Basin.

The Commission is currently developing a Strategy for the Mediterranean, which is expected to be adopted by the Contracting Parties at their next meeting in Slovenia.

Another important event was the entry into force on July 9, 2004, of the amended convention which is now recorded as the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and Coastal Regions of the Mediterranean.

As a result of these amendments the convention has had its remit widened to address sustainable development and is now more action oriented.

The Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention are Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, the European Community, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Monaco, Morocco, Slovenia, Spain, Serbia-Montenegro, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.

The centre of MAP's activities is the MAP Co-ordinating Unit (MEDU) that has been based in Athens since 1982. MEDU is responsible for the implementation of the Mediterranean Action Plan under the direction of the Secretariat to the Barcelona Convention, led by a co-ordinator.

Thirty years on and MAP is even more relevant today for the Mediterranean than it was when it was launched. It has proved to be the appropriate mechanism for the promotion of environment and sustainable development policies in the region.

No other regional organisation enjoys credibility and trust among the Mediterranean riparian states than MAP.

Paul Mifsud is the co-ordinator of UNEP/MAP, based in Athens.