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The Mediterranean Sea Programme (MedProgramme): Enhancing environmental security

GEF-UNEP/MAP MedProgramme

By IW:LEARN

June 7^th, 2020

The UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) is launching the Mediterranean Sea Programme (MedProgramme): Enhancing Environmental Security (GEF ID 9607) in the framework of the strategic partnership between and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The Inception Meeting of the MedProgramme will take place remotely by videoconference from 20 to 22 July 2020 with the participation of the beneficiaries countries (Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, Montenegro, Tunisia and Turkey), UNEP/MAP as leading executing Agency, the GEF Implementing Agencies (UNEP and EBRD) and the executing partners (UNESCO/IHP, EIB, IUCN Med, GWP Med, WWF Med, Plan Bleu, PAP/RAC, SCP/RAC and SPA/RAC).

The MedProgramme aims to kick start the implementation of agreed upon priority actions to reduce the major transboundary environmental stresses affecting the Mediterranean Sea and its coastal areas, while strengthening climate resilience and water security, and improving the health and livelihoods of coastal populations. It does so through a holistic approach focusing on:

Hotspots of land-based sources of pollution;
Harmful chemicals and wastes (POPs and Mercury) and excess nutrients;
Critical sections of the coastal zone particularly affected by climatic variability;
Freshwater stress and habitat degradation;
The efficient and sustainable management of priority marine protected areas; and
Measuring the progress to impacts.

Background

The Mediterranean Sea - the largest semi-enclosed sea in the world - is shared by 21 countries with a coastline of 46,000 km. Its coastal areas are undergoing a dramatic process of development. The populations of coastal states have doubled in the last 40 years to 450 million and will reach over 600 million in 2050. The region is characterized by a unique and rich, yet fragile biodiversity, hosted by many diverse ecosystems, which together form an invaluable natural capital on which populations and economies depend on. A range of human activities threatens many of these species. Pollution from land-based sources, such as discharges of excess nutrients and hazardous substances, marine litter, and degradation of critical habitats, are among the key factors responsible for this biodiversity loss.

The MAP was the first initiative to be developed under the UNEP Regional Seas Programme and became the model for other seas across the globe. The Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution (Barcelona Convention) was adopted on 1976. With their institutional, regulatory and implementation dimensions, the Barcelona Convention and the MAP set a unique legally binding framework for coordinated strategies of all the countries around the shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea.

In this context, UNEP/MAP and the GEF set an important and result oriented effective partnership aiming to support the action of the Mediterranean countries in reaching the objectives of the Barcelona Convention and ultimately fostering the sustainable development of the region. This collaboration, delivered several strategic products between 1997 and 2015, among them the Mediterranean Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), the Strategic Action Programme to Address Pollution from Land-Based Activities (SAP-MED), the Strategic Action Programme for the Conservation of Mediterranean Marine and Coastal Biological Diversity (SAP-BIO) and the Mediterranean National Actions Plans (NAPs). These results were achieved through a coordinated effort to setup and catalyze the policy, and legal and institutional reforms necessary to reverse the degradation trends affecting the Mediterranean LME that resulted in more than 150 activities, 80 demonstration projects on ground which impact in the long term on the sustainability of the region, over 300 documents including technical reports, guidelines and policy analysis, over 500 meetings, workshops, and trainings reaching out to thousands of stakeholders and bringing together local actors, civil society, regional experts and international institutions.

Kram, Tunis, Tunisia. Photo credit: Christian Gabi, 2020

What is the MedProgramme?

The MedProgramme builds on the successful partnership between UNEP/MAP, the GEF and the 22 Contracting Parties of the Barcelona Convention. It is based on an overarching vision for change that generates a series of 7 interconnected Child Projects: "A healthy Mediterranean with marine and coastal ecosystems that are productive and biologically diverse contributing to sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations". The MedProgramme will be fully integrated in the UNEP/MAP 2022-2027 Medium Term Strategy (MTS) meant to guide the path for the protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean as a clear expression of the commitment and support of the Mediterranean countries to the sustainable development of the Region.

The Programme is funded with a USD 43 million GEF grant represents the first time that several GEF focal areas join forces (International Waters, Chemical and Waste, Biodiversity and Climate Change Adaptation) in fostering the implementation of a Strategic Action Program through a coordinated set of fully-fledged projects for the protection and sustainable use of a major transboundary waterbody such as the Mediterranean Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (LME).

The innovative approach of the MedProgramme

The MedProgramme is structured around four components which fully reflect the priorities adopted by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, namely:

Reduction of Land Based Pollution In Priority Coastal Hotspots and measuring progress to impacts;
Enhancing Sustainability and Climate Resilience in the Coastal Zone;
Protecting Marine Biodiversity; and
Knowledge Management and Programme Coordination.

The Programme is meant to achieve multiple benefits at the national, regional and global levels, providing at the same time a collective response to regional and global soft and binding international environmental agreements. The extensive experience of GEF in the development of SAPs has shown that in many, if not most cases, the priority responses to environmental degradation of transboundary waterbodies involve interventions that require integration among focal areas. In this sense the MedProgramme is a pioneering initiative that could lead the way to the systematic adoption of programmatic approaches in the GEF International Waters SAP implementation whenever the consolidation of transboundary cooperation frameworks will allow, and the complexity of the drivers of degradation will require.

Moreover, the MedProgramme will introduce a long-term impact and innovative factor, namely the coordination between technical assistance interventions with a large investment portfolio to address the needs defined by the Mediterranean NAPs supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). These two International Financial Institutions will provide a cash co-financing of USD 700 million in the form of loans granted to the countries and to public/private actor to foster market creation and transformation and ensuring sustainability through the private sector and municipal involvement.

The expected results and impacts of the MedProgramme

The MedProgramme will deploy more than one hundred coordinated actions at both regional and national levels over the next 5 years. This holistic approach will result in several specific environmental benefits in the region, among others: the disposal of 3,250 tons of POPs, 50 tons of Mercury, the prevention of the use of 1,309 tons of POPs per year, the development of an updated TDA including gender assessment, investments for the depollution of the waters in drains and canals in the Nile Delta, for wastewater collection systems in coastal hotspots in Lebanon and for upgrading 10 WWTPs to improve the quality of Tunisian surface water, groundwater, and coastal waters. Work will also focus on ICZM national and WEFE Nexus plans in several countries, and on improving the effective management of coastal aquifers in the whole region. Specific activities will be executed to increase the resilience to climate change in Morocco and Montenegro as well as at the regional level. The Programme will work towards expanding seascapes under protection and improving protected marine area management in Libya. Moreover, innovative and cross cutting knowledge management and gender mainstreaming strategies will be implemented to serve the MedProgramme and provide a pilot for further integration into the operation of the Barcelona Convention.

An additional innovative feature of the MedProgramme is attracting additional investments to complement the ongoing activities. This is already happening for example through the cooperation with FAO and the General Fishery Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) in the framework of the recently approved GEF project Fisheries and Ecosystem Based Management for the Blue Economy of the Mediterranean - (FishEBM MED-GEF ID 10560), aiming to reverse the overexploitation of selected commercial living marine resources in the Mediterranean countries and through the involvement of private equity funds that expressed interest in investing in the region.

The MedProgramme will contribute to strengthening UNEP/MAP’s position as a leading actor of a large coordinated and comprehensive effort in the Mediterranean region to promote the sustainable utilization of coastal and marine resources. It will strategically contribute to the sustainable development efforts in the Mediterranean basin and to the dialogue, cooperation, and therefore peace and security in the region.

For more information on the MedProgramme please contact the Project Pool Manager, Lorenzo Galbiati (lorenzo.galbiati@un.org) and visit the project page on iwlearn.net.