AGENDA MED FORUM 2000

Programme of the Mediterranean NGOs for Sustainable Development

Draft version directed by Paolo Bifani and coordinated by Rafael Madueño

INDEX

1. Introduction

I. THE MEDITERRANEAN

2. The Mediterranean region
2.1. Defining the geographical setting and its characterization
2.2. Mediterranean population
2.3. The insularity of the Mediterranean
2.4. Biological diversity
2.5. The problem of water
2.6. Mediterranean's soils and agricultural expansion
2.7. Marine resources
2.8. Pollution and environmental degradation
2.9. Industrialization and its environmental impacts
2.10. Tourism

II. OFFICIAL PROGRAMMES FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

3. The Barcelona Convention and the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP)
3.1. The Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean
3.2. The Protocols of the Barcelona Convention
3.3. The Mediterranean Action Plan for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Sustainable Development of the Coastal Zones of the Mediterranean
3.4. The Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MCSD)

4. The Euro-Mediterranean Process
4.1. The Barcelona Declaration of the Euro-Mediterranean Conference (1995)
4.2. The Short and Medium-term Environmental Priority Action Plan for the Mediterranean (SMAP)

5. The main international conventions
5.1. The Convention to Combat Desertification
5.2. Conventions on biological diversity
a) United Nations Convention on Bioloigical Diversity
b) The Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats
c) The Ramsar Convention and MedWet
d) The IUCN and the Mediterranean Office
5.3. The United Nations International Framework Convention on Climatic Change

6. United Nations agencies, programes and bodies related to the environment
6.1. The United Nations Development Programme: UNDP
6.2. The United Nations Environment Programme: UNEP
6.3. The International Maritime Organization: IMO
6.4. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization: FAO
6.5. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: UNESCO
6.6. The Economic Commissions
a) The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)
b) The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN/ECA)
c) The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN/ESCWA)
6.7. Other international bodies working for the environment
a) The Global Environment Facility:GEF
b) The Mediterranean Environmental and Technical Assistance Programme: METAP

III. THE PROGRAMME OF THE MEDITERRANEAN NGOs FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

7. The framework for carrying out the Programme of the Mediterranean NGOs
7.1. Overcoming poverty: a precondition for sustainable development and peace
7.2. The creation of a free trade zone and the situation of the environment

8. Priority actions
8.1. Integrated water management
8.2. Integrated and sustainable coastal zone management
8.3. Combatting desertification
8.4. The protection of biodiversity
8.5. Sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean
8.6. Integrated waste management
8.7. Other necessary actions: energy transport, air pollution, forests, forest fires, etc.

9. Activities to be carried out by the Mediteranean NGOs
9.1. Participation in international forums
9.2. Mediterranean Cooperation
9.3. Information campaigns
9.4. Consolidating the organization of the Mediterranean NGOs: MED Forum, "The Network of Mediterranean NGOS"
9.5. Environmental education for sustainable development
9.6. Information and participation

1. INTRODUCTION

The Mediterranean offers certain environmental conditions (climate, biological diversity and natural resources) that make it an ideal place to live. For this reason, since earliest times, peoples from faraway lands have chosen to settle there and, with the passage of time, have fashioned a historical and cultural heritage as valuable as the natural assets of the region.
For one reason or another, over the years very different peoples from many different places have established themselves along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in the process founding diverse cultures which came to have a profound impact on the entire Mediterranean basin and on the planet as a whole. Aside from the early, extraordinary Egyptian civilization and various minor ones (such as the Cycladean culture of the Aegean islands, the Minoan in Crete or the Mycenean of mainland Greece), the rest of the great Mediterranean cultures have had a broad repercussions throughout the Mediterranean area: Greek civilization, with Athens at its head; the Phoenicians, with their principal cultural centre in Carthage; and the Romans, with their great capital city as the centre of the first Mediterranean civilization to impose a single language —Latin— and one religion —Christianity— as unifying elements. The breakup of the Roman empire, with a short unifying period under Byzantium, led to attempts to colonize the Mediterranean by several different peoples, such Arabs, Ottoman Turks, and Europeans (Catalans, Venetians, French and English), the chief result of which was the diffusion and mingling of different cultures and religions.
The Mediterranean is a sea of communication routes. From Phoenician and Greek merchants, by way of the Roman market and trade among Arabs, Venetians, Catalans and Provençals, to modern freight and tourist transport, the Mediterranean has facilitated contact between groups of people living on its shoreline. And when they could not trade for what they wanted, some have resorted to expropriation by force through war and conquest. In ecological terms, the Mediterranean is a very calm sea, but economically and politically it has many violent storms.
The Mediterranean Basin is the birthplace of some of the oldest, most deeply rooted cultures of our planet, and of three of the most influential religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. This area has seen the most intensive warfare, invasion leading to total assimilation and long-term colonization. It is the source of some of the oldest and the most recent dogmas, and has suffered the bloodiest intolerance with the Inquisition, the Nazis and the modern fundamentalist movements. But at the same time, it is the cradle of democracy, the welfare state and the most important periods of freedom that humanity has ever enjoyed.
The Mediterranean is the area most popular with citizens from elsewhere (the destination of one in three of the world's tourists), thanks to its benign climate, beautiful landscape, rich historical and cultural heritage, and extensive areas of freedom enjoyed by large populations around the mare nostrum. The population, both permanent residents and visitors, is concentrated on the coastline. This coastal strip, approximately 50 km wide, is home to some 140 million permanent inhabitants, to which must be added almost 200 million tourists a year from the inland areas of the Mediterranean countries and elsewhere, mainly central and northern Europe. The result is a clash of conflicting interests, that can often not be easily reconciled. Land speculation, especially along the seafront, is the main activity destroying the spaces of greatest ecological value. Buildings that degrade the landscape, urban concentration in areas of unparalleled natural beauty, wetlands turned into sports ports, dunes that are levelled for construction, or palm groves replaced by forests of apartment blocks, all represent the triumph of considerations based on short-term profit for the few, at the cost of the natural and ecological heritage stolen from the rest of the community and future generations. The great urban concentrations, infrastructures and economic activities (especially mass tourism and maritime transport) have a major environmental impact on the Mediterranean Basin.
Faced with this situation, MED Forum, "the Network of Mediterranean NGOs for Ecology and Sustainable Development", made up of national and local NGOs of the different countries bordering the sea and their neighbours, has decided to develop the Programme of the Mediterranean NGOs for Sustainable Development, called MED Forum's Agenda 2000. Its main aim is to outline the Mediterranean NGOs' strategy for the next century to solve the major problems the region is suffering.
MED Forum's Agenda 2000 starts by analyzing the real problems the region is suffering and, is followed by an evaluation of the existing official proposals to solve them, and finishes with the Programme of the Mediterranean NGOs for Sustainable Development.
MED Forum's Agenda 2000 consists of three parts:
I. The Mediterranean: a region in its own right.
II. Official programmes for the protection of the Mediterranean.
III. Programme of the Mediterranean NGOs for Sustainable Development.

The first section looks at the geographic setting, population and insularity; the problems of water, soil, marine resources and biological diversity; pollution and the effects of industrialization and tourism.
The second section sets out the existing official programmes affecting various issues of concern in the Mediterranean Basin. It evaluates the effects of the Barcelona Convention for the protection of the Mediterranean, its Protocols and the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development; the Euro-Mediterranean Process and the Short and Medium-term Priority Action Programme for the Mediterranean Environment (SMAP). It also looks at the main international agreements, such as the Conventions to Combat Desertification, on Biological Diversity and Climate Change, as well as the programmes, agencies and organizations of the United Nations (UNDP, UNEP, IMO, FAO, UNESCO), GEF and METAP.
The third part, the reason for this document's existence, is the Programme of the Mediterranean NGOs for Sustainable Development, and it analyzes the framework within which the Programme is carried out and proposes a group of priority actions:
- integrated water management
- integrated and sustainable coastal management
- combatting desertification
- the protection of biodiversity
- sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean Basin.

It also points out other necessary actions, such as management of waste, energy, transport, air pollution, forests, forest fires, etc.
These priority actions are accompanied by a set of activities needed to put the programme into practice:
- participation in international forums
- Mediterranean cooperation
- information campaigns
- consolidation of the Mediterranean NGOs: MED Forum, "the Network of Mediterranean NGOs for Ecology and Sustainable Development"
- environmental education, information and participation.

This Programme of the Mediterranean NGOs for Sustainable Development, MED Forum's Agenda 2000, has been prepared by a team led by Paolo Bifani, MED Forum advisor and United Nations consultant, and coordinated by Rafael Madueño, Secretary General of MED Forum and environmental expert. It has received numerous contributions and inputs (and these will be listed in detail in the final document) in order to serve as the focus of a broad-based and thorough debate among all the member NGOs of MED Forum and the national and international NGOs active in issues concerning the Mediterranean Basin. It will be offered for comment, in addition, to experts from academia, national Public Administration, international bodies, the business community and other social sectors. We intend MED Forum's Agenda 2000 to be the end result of an open, wide-ranging debate that will reach its high point during the V Mediterranean Environmental Forum, to be held on November 19-20, 1998, in Barcelona (Spain), which will bring together some 100 NGOs and in which members of other public groups and national and international organizations will be invited to participate as observers. Our intention is for the Programme of the Mediterranean NGOs for Sustainable Development to emerge from a broadly participatory process, as the maximum guarantee that it will be supported and implemented by the Mediterranean NGOs, and taken into consideration by the national and international organizations, as well as the academic, economic and social sectors.