“Building a shared future for all life” is the slogan chosen for the 2022 edition of International Day for Biological Diversity (IBD, 22 May). On 20 May this slogan resonated in the sumptuous building of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco where the Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) and its Regional Activity Centre SPA/RAC organized jointly with the Pelagos Agreement Secretariat, the Prince Albert II Foundation, and the Oceanographic Institute, a special event dedicated to SPAMI Day, the newly instituted observance under the Barcelona Convention celebrating the Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMIs).
Speaking at the high-level segment of the special event, H.S.H Prince Albert II of Monaco commended UNEP/MAP, SPA/RAC, the Pelagos Agreement, and their partners: “Thanks to all of you, the SPAMIs receive at last the attention that they deserve. It was high time.” SPAMI Day, which was adopted at COP 22 of the Barcelona Convention, held in Antalya, Turkey, on 7-10 December 2021, is officially celebrated on 15 April.
“I was delighted to attend SPAMI Day 2022 as the President of the Bureau of the Barcelona Convention. We must come together to protect the natural riches it offers us. SPAMIs are at the forefront of the conservation model we want to see expand and thrive,” said Professor Mehmet Emin Birpinar, Deputy Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, Turkey.
What does a new celebration dedicated to SPAMIs bring? “I would say it brings a great deal,” said Tatjana Hema, the UNEP/MAP Coordinator, who commended SPAMI managers’ efforts in her speech (delivered in French), adding that “SPAMIs provide pilot sites where ecosystem-based approaches can be undertaken in areas such as marine and coastal habitat mapping and assessment, as well as climate change monitoring and mitigation. The objective is, of course, to harness the demonstrative effect of SPAMIs to extend the solutions and best practices that abound there on a larger scale”.
Zouhour Methamem, the Chief of Cabinet of the Minister of Environment of Tunisia, who spoke on behalf of Minister Leila Chikhaoui, said that “Tunisia has always been very active in supporting and contributing to environment and marine biodiversity protection at international and Mediterranean level. It has created and is supporting the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity and has established, together with France and Monaco, the Mediterranean Trust Fund for sustainable financing of Marine Protected Areas (MedFund)”.
“The legal instruments, technical tools and opportunities for cooperation provided by the UNEP/MAP-Barcelona Convention system can enable a coordinated regional response to address issues hindering the biodiversity conservation potential in the Mediterranean,” declared Oliviero Montanaro of Italy, Chair of the Meeting of the Parties of the Pelagos Agreement, who addressed the high-level segment of the special event through teleconference.
"SPAMI Day aims to acknowledge and showcase the efforts of SPAMI managers and to mobilise decision-makers, donors, national institutions, managers, civil society organisations, influencers and the general public on the challenges of Mediterranean ecosystem conservation and marine and coastal resources management through the creation and management of marine and coastal protected areas,” said the SPA/RAC Director Khalil Attia.
SPAMIs constitute breeding grounds for biodiversity-related solutions and provide public goods for the entire Mediterranean. Here are three aspects illustrating how the SPAMIs serve as the fulcrum of the conservation endeavor in the Mediterranean:
SPAMIs are much more than a mere label
There are 39 Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance among the 1,233 marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures located in the Mediterranean. To be included in the SPAMIs List, candidate marine and coastal protected areas must demonstrate a set of ecological, scientific, aesthetic, cultural or educational features of interest as part of formal submissions made by the concerned Contracting Parties. Once they make it to the list, SPAMIs are monitored as part of rigorous periodic reviews that take place every six years.
In addition, SPAMIs combine innovation with a firm grounding in the legal and institutional framework of the UNEP/MAP-Barcelona Convention system. The SPAMI List was established in 2001 under the Barcelona Convention under its Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean (SPA/BD Protocol). Since its entry into force in December 1999, the Protocol provides the regional framework for the conservation of marine and coastal biological diversity.
SPAMIs foster the transboundary cooperation that is crucial for effective conservation
The threats faced by marine and coastal life in the Mediterranean often know no national borders. The response to these threats must match their cross-border nature. When it comes to transboundary cooperation, SPAMIs offer a multitude of benefits. They serve as “frameworks for regional, bilateral and multilateral cooperation, for sharing and exchanging good practices, and transferring sustainable solutions, between the different sub-regional contexts of the Mediterranean,” as the SPA/RAC Director Khalil Attia noted. In addition, SPAMIs—as all effective protected areas do—generate “spillover benefits”, such as a healthier and bigger catch for fishers operating in surrounding zones.
SPAMIs can be created both in marine and coastal areas subject to the sovereignty or jurisdiction of the Parties, as well as in areas areas beyond national jurisdiction. The Pelagos Sanctuary, the “only international transboundary area dedicated to the protection of marine mammals”, according to the Executive Secretary of the Pelagos Agreement, Costanza Favilli, who spoke at the high-level segment of the Monaco event. The Agreement brings together France, Italy, and the Principality of Monaco. The Pelagos Sanctuary was included in the SPAMI List since November 2002, a few months after the eponymous Agreement entered into effect. “The SPAMI status was ingrained in the DNA of the Pelagos Agreement,” Costanza Favilli, Executive Secretary, said in her statement at the Monaco special event on 20 May.
SPAMIs act as beacons that guide biodiversity conservation efforts in the field
SPAMIs have a demonstrative effect that can be harnessed to scale up solutions and best practices. In addition to the benefits they generate for their immediate stakeholders, SPAMIs provide broader contributions in the implementation of three important strategies for the Mediterranean, namely the UNEP/MAP Medium Term Strategy (MTS) 2022-2027, which encompasses Ecological Objectives relating to biodiversity and fisheries, the Post-2020 Strategic Action Program for the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable management of natural resources in the Mediterranean region (Post-2020 SAPBIO), and the Post-2020 regional strategy for Marine and Coastal Protected Areas and Other Area-Based Conservation Measures. (The three strategies were adopted at COP 22 of the Barcelona Convention in Antalya.)
The existing SPAMI Twinning Programme financed within the framework of bilateral cooperation between UNEP/MAP and the Italian Ministry for Ecological Transition (MiTE) is helping harness the demonstrative value of SPAMIs and strengthen their ability to provide solutions and benefits that go beyond their lines of demarcation. The Twinning Programme, which is sustained thanks to funding from the European project ENSERES, also involving Spain and France, has already benefited 8 SPAMIs and marine protected areas from Albania, Algeria, Italy, Slovenia, and Tunisia.
Learn more:
Watch the recording of the SPAMI Day 2022 special event
