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Financé par l'Union européenne, le projet régional IMAP-MPA s'est terminé en août 2023 après 48 mois d'activités visant « Vers le bon état écologique de la mer et des côtes méditerranéennes à travers un réseau d’aires marines protégées écologiquement représentatives, bien gérées et surveillées ».

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are organic compounds that used to be produced worldwide but are now banned under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), a global treaty aiming to eliminate or restrict the production, use and trade of chemicals that are recognized as persistent, bio-accumulative and harmful to human and environmental health.

The Plan of Action for a Model Mediterranean Sea by 2030 (PAMEx) and its Local Investment Finance Facility (PLIFF) held their second Steering Committee meeting online on 18 July 2023.

At INC-2 in Paris, as negotiators were poring

The Strategic Action Programme for the conservation of Biodiversity and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in the Mediterranean Region, referred to in the relevant decisions of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity (SPA/BD) Protocol as “The Post-2020 SAPBIO”, is the Mediterranean region’s blueprint for the protection and sustainable use of marine and coastal biodiversity.

“Fast fashion”, whereby linear (take-make-use-dispose) supply chains churn out garments modelled on the latest trends, has exacted a heavy toll on natural resources. According to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, a truckload of abandoned textiles is dumped in landfill or incinerated every second. Meanwhile, it is estimated that people are buying 60 per cent more clothes and wearing them for half as long.

Photo: Fisherwomen building traditional fishing gear, Al Hoceima, Morocco.

Le Plan d’action pour une Méditerranée exemplaire d’ici 2030 (PAMEx) tiendra la première réunion de son Comité de pilotage les 24 et 25 janvier 2023 à Athènes, en Grèce. Les partenaires du PAMEx y examineront l’état de mise en œuvre des 20 actions concrètes que le plan d’action comprend.

On 15 December 2022 the 79th session of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 79) adopted the Mediterranean Sea Emission Control Area for Sulphur Oxides and Particulate Matter (Med SOx ECA), with effect from 1 May 2025, to further limit air pollution from ships, pursuant to Annex VI to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).

The PAMEx Local Investment Finance Facility (PLIFF) officially launched on 6 December 2022 following the official signing of its founding charter at the Forum Méditerranée du Futur held in Marseille, France. PLIFF is a financial mechanism created under the umbrella of the initiative titled “PAMEx: The Mediterranean: a model sea by 2030“.

La Tunisie a récemment ratifié le Protocole de Gestion Intégrée des Zones Côtières (GIZC), près de 14 ans après son adoption à Madrid, en Espagne. En vertu du décret n° 2022-917 du 29 novembre 2022, paru au Journal officiel de la République tunisienne, la Tunisie a donné son consentement formel à être liée par les dispositions de cet instrument juridique.

In addition to hosting critical natural habitats, Mediterranean coastal zones underpin crucial blue economy activities. As biologically active interfaces where complex land-sea interactions are at play, the coasts are hotspots of climate change vulnerability.

“Building a shared future for all life” is the slogan chosen for the 2022 edition of International Day for Biological Diversity (IBD, 22 May).

This special feature prepared by UNEP/MAP and the Regional Activity Centres SCP/RAC and SPA/RAC on the occasion of the 2021 edition of International Women’s Day aims to highlight the accomplishments of some (among many) of the everyday female heroes who embody the principles enshrined in the Barcelona Convention through their work.