Because Marine Protected Areas are everyone's business: the MPA Forum/Roadmap process- Harnessing capacities and strength for a healthy Mediterranean Sea!
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The Mediterranean is a hotspot of the world in many regards: biodiversity; economic activities and climate change. While the Barcelona Convention and the European Union (EU) provide respectively a regional framework and sub-regional cohesion for countries, still, the implementation of policies, strategies and actions to protect the marine environment varies considerably across the region, and there is a large divide in terms of the implementation of environmental policies. Marine protected area coverage in the Mediterranean also varies considerably. In 2012, the Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) Forum community developed the first Roadmap, which was then updated in 20216. While MPA protection coverage achievement is progressing and rightly captures attention, MPA performance is extremely important and sometimes neglected.
In 2021, a new roadmap was developed in line with the global and regional commitments and, in particular the GBF CBD Target 3 and the Post-2020 Marine and Coastal Protected areas (MCPAs) and Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures in the Mediterranean (OECMs)following a large participatory process including all stakeholder groups involved with MPAs in the Mediterranean. But the real value of such a document is when it becomes a “living document” that aims to contribute through concrete actions of numerous actors, organisations and various stakeholders to the implementation of the goals and outcomes committed at global and regional levels. The 2030 MPA Roadmap focuses on the means of implementation and on actions related to MPAs that can help mobilise, align and coordinate efforts of the various stakeholders to achieve marine conservation objectives.
The aim of this event is thus to provide a meeting opportunity for the Mediterranean marine conservation community and to harness efforts around the marine challenges of our Mediterranean Sea and to discuss recommendations and actions because MPAs are everyone's business!
