MED FORUM 2000 AGENDA
Program of the Mediterranean NGOs for sustainable development.
V Mediterranean Environmental Forum, Barcelona, November 19-20, 1998.

The assembled Mediterranean NGOs, summoned by MED Forum, "the Mediterranean NGO Network for Ecology and Sustainable Development", to debate the MED Forum 2000 Agenda during the sessions of the V Mediterranean Environmental Forum organized by EcoMediterrània (Spain) with the objective of establishing Program of the Mediterranean NGOs for Sustainable Development, have approved after two days of debate, the following:

We verify that the Mediterranean offers certain environmental conditions - climate, biological diversity, natural resources - that make it an ideal place to live, and for this reason since earliest times peoples from faraway lands have chosen to settle here, giving shape with the passage of time to a historical and cultural heritage as valuable as the natural assets of the region.

We affirm that the Mediterranean basin is the birthplace of the oldest and most deeply rooted civilizations of our planet, and of three of the most influential religions world-wide: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. It is also the area that has lived through the most intensive warfare and that has suffered invasions leading to total assimilation and long-term colonization, and the site in which some of the oldest and most recent dogmas have cropped up, and where the inhabitants have suffered the bloodiest types of intolerance due to the Inquisition, the Nazi movement, and the modern fundamentalist movements. But at the same time, the Mediterranean is the cradle of democracy, of the welfare state and of the most important periods of freedom that humankind has ever enjoyed.

We verify that the Mediterranan is the area that attracts the most citizens from all over the world - it is the destination of a third of all the world’s tourists - thanks to its benign climate, its beautiful landscapes, its rich historical and cultural heritage, and its 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, an area of approximately 50 km, is home to some 140 million permanent inhabitants, to which must be added yearly almost 200 million tourists from inland areas of Mediterranean countries and elsewhere, mainly from central and northern Europe.

We reject the continued degradation of the natural setting and the permanent aggressions to the cultural heritage. Land speculation, especially along the seafront, is the main predator of the spaces of greatest ecological value. Buildings that degrade the landscape, urban concentration in areas of unparalleled beauty, wetlands turned into sports ports, dunes razed to the ground for construction, or coastal palm groves replaced by forests of apartment blocks, all demonstrate the triumph of considerations based on short-term profit for the few at the cost of the natural and cultural heritage stolen from the rest of the community and future generations.

We wish to set forth some key data that reflect the present situation of the Mediterranean basin:
 

1. The Mediterranean’s characteristic of being a landlocked sea which has a water-renewal turnover time of more than 90 years.
2. The existence of more than 46,000 km of coastline, the majority of which is mountainous, with only 3,000 km of flat lands.
3. A growing population that already counts with 410 million inhabitants, of which 37% live on the coastline, which only represents 17.5% of the total surface area of the Mediterranean countries.
4. The existence of a rich biological diversity exposed to grave risks and hazards:

• There are more than 10,000 marine species.
• There are over 25,000 plant species, of which 50% are endemic.
• 1,000 plant species are in danger of extinction and 26 species have already become extinct.
• Approximately 85 million hectares are forest land, which accounts for only 9.5% of the total surface area.
• 75% of the dune systems along the northern shoreline have already disappeared.
• A million hectares of wetlands have disappeared in the last 50 years.
• Of the 145 breeds of cattle, 115 are considered to be in danger of extinction.
• Only 1% of the Mediterranean coastline is protected.

5. A very uneven distribution of internal water resources: the north of the basin has about 74% of the water resources, the east has about 21%, and the south has about 5%. The problem is exacerbated by the unevenly distributed demand for water: 72% for agricultural consumption, 17% for industrial consumption, and 10% for human consumption.
6. Water pollution is very high: more than 46% of the population does not have water treatment plants, and between 70% to 80% of all water pollution in the Mediterranean is land-based. Almost 60% of the pollution input into the Mediterranean comes from France, Italy and Spain.
7. Erosion of the soils on the Mediterranean coastline is increasing; in the north water is the main erosion agent, whereas in the south and in the east there is both water and wind erosion.
8. The Mediterranean, which only represents 0.7% of the world surface of seas and oceans, is the site of 35% of the world’s trade in hydrocarbons, of 15% of the chemicals trade, of 17% of world trade. About 60% to 70% of all the oil pollution is due to discharges during routine unloading.
9. In the Nile delta, it is estimated that by the end of the decade the generation of solid waste production will be about 16,920 tons per day, and in the Sea of Marmara they will be about 5,760 tons per day, and in northeast Spain and southeast France they will reach 4,200 tons per day.
10. The Mediterranean ranks as the first international tourist destination. In 1996 it received about 183 million tourists, which represents 30% of all the world tourist market. This implies a demand for more than 25,000 hectares of lands for facilities and demands of 40 million m3 of drinking water, and the creation of 24 million m3 of sewage.
     

 
MANIFEST our support to and agreement with the contents of the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean, approved in 1976 and amended in 1995, as well as our support to the Protocols which develop it, and we denounce the lack of political will of the majority of the member States to put these measures into practice, which is evidenced by the fact that 6 of the 7 treaties (the Convention and the 5 Protocols) have not been ratified by a sufficient number of States so that they can come into force. We demand the immediate ratification of the amendments of the Convention, as well as the ratification of the modified Protocols and the new Protocols so that they can come into effect immediately. This is especially important in the case of the Strategic Action Program to combat pollution caused by land-based activities (SAP-97), in which concrete timetables and budgets are set down for the improvement of the Mediterranean situation.
 

DEMAND that the European Union lend greater support to the Mediterranean area, a request that was first presented in the Euro-Mediterranean Conference held in Barcelona in 1995, and specified in the MEDA Program. We consider that all programs for the Mediterranean should view the whole area as one unity, thus fomenting the idea of "Mediterraneanhood" and promoting the co-development of the whole area. We propose that the MEDA Program obtain a budget of 400 million ECU for the execution of the SMAP during the next 5 years, and that at least 10% of the MEDA budget for bilateral agreements be destined to environmental matters. We urge the European Union to create a MEDA NGO endowed with 20 million ECU.

DEMAND a more decisive political commitment on the part of national and international institutions in the application of the main international conventions, and a greater contribution on the part of the international programs to improve the environment in the Mediterranean basin and to promote sustainable development in the whole region. Special importance must be given to the development of the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Climatic Change, the Ramsar Convention, and to the programs, agencies, and international bodies such as UNEP, UNDP, FAO, UNESCO, IMO, MARPOL, GEF, and METAP, providing funds to carry out specific projects with the participation of the NGOS.
 

It has to be ESTABLISHED a framework of regional cooperation to combat the profound existing inequalities in the region and to foster a sustainable economic development with the objective of eradicating poverty as the best means to ensure freedom and consolidate peace in all the area, and where the developed countries would assume the responsibility of putting into practice sustainable development by transforming the external debt of the developing countries, investing it into projects for environmental improvement.

 WE PROPOSE a Priority Action Plan centred on six main issues:

• integrated water management,
• integrated and sustainable coastal zone management,
• combatting desertification,the protection of biodiversity,
• sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean,
• integrated waste management,

which, jointly with other necessary actions on issues such as energy, transport, forests, combatting air pollution, etc., are the main activities that the Mediterranean NGOs will carry out: through international dialogue and debate, projects of cooperation, information campaigns, environmental education and information, and raising the consciousness of civil society to favor its active participation in environmental issues.
 

Concerning integrated water management, we propose the following priority actions:
 

1. To establish a Mediterranean strategy for integrated water management that should be specified before the year 2002 in a new Protocol within the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean, which should be completed with National Hydrological Plans and Watershed Plans by the year 2004 at the very latest, in order to satisfy the demands for water supply while protecting this scarce natural resource.
2. To implement and put into effect the SAP agreements (Strategic Action Program to combat pollution caused by land-based activities) that establish measures to put a stop to the further degradation of the Mediterranean basin and improve it considerably, and to set out timetables and budget provisions for this task.
3. To eliminate gradually the discharge of sewage into the sea before the year 2025, establishing a timetable to meet these commitments so that European Union cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants are able to treat their waters by the year 2005. The rest of the Mediterranean cities that do not belong to the European Union and that have a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants must have installed adequate water treatment systems to treat their sewage by the year 2005, while those that have a population of more than 50,000 inhabitants must do so by the year 2010.
   

Concerning the integrated and sustainable coastal zone management, we propose as priority actions:
 

1. To promote a new Protocol of the Barcelona Convention that contains regulatory and legislative measures that will stimulate national laws that favor an integrated and sustainable coastal zone management, and to approve regional and local plans for land use along the coastline before the year 2005.
2. To establish protective measures that limit urban growth in coastal areas, declaring at least 20% of the coastline as strictly protected, and developing Protocol SPA of the Barcelona Convention, especially in reference to the Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance. The islands must have a different management and protection policy specifically for them.
3. To create a fund for the protection of the coastline at national and regional levels managed by non-profit-making private bodies that receive funding from additional taxes imposed on activities linked to development, and from contributions by administrations, international bodies, and the public at large.
   

To combat desertification, we propose the following priority actions:
 

1. To approve before the year 2002, at the level of each Mediterranean State, a strategy to combat erosion and desertification based on the Convention to Combat Desertification and on Chapter 12 of Agenda 21, and to carry out programs on a regional and local level with the participation of all the sectors involved, especially the NGOs.
2. To ensure that the action plans to combat erosion and desertification are integrated within the rest of the programs: food security and combatting poverty, integrated water management, protection of biodiversity and climatic change.
   

To protect biodiversity, we propose the following priority actions:
 

1. To prepare, with the active participation of all the Mediterranean coastal countries, national strategies, plans and programs for the conservation and sustainable use of the biological diversity.
2. To assign financial resources from the funds of either international institutions or developed countries to the developing countries so they can fulfill the objectives of the Convention in order of priority, taking into account the needs determined by the national strategies as well as those of the NGOs and of the local communities.
3. To designate before the year 2002 at least 100 Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance in accordance with the SAP Protocol of the Barcelona Convention, ensuring their protection and endowing them with technical, economic and human resources.
   

For a sustainable tourism on the Mediterranean basin, we propose the following priority actions:
 

1. To prevent mass tourism and excessive concentration by respecting the carrying capacity of the area. To achieve this, tourism must be planned with criteria of sustainability so that it is ecologically viable in the long term, and socially fair in its redistribution of the wealth it generates so that it does not lead to loss of social structure where it settles.
2. To publicise examples of sustainable tourism on both a wide and limited scale to stimulate its implantation at a general level. The "MED Projct ULIXES 21" will set up a program from the MED Forum Network that will serve to broadcast these examples in all of the Mediterranean area through its web page.
   

Concerning integrated waste management, we propose the following priority actions:

1. To elaborate before the year 2000 a Strategy for Integrated and Sustainable Urban, Industrial and Hazardous Waste Management in all of the Mediterranean basin that serves as a base document or framework of reference for the different States to create their own waste plans and programs on a national, regional and local level. The objective of this strategy will be to put into effect an integrated management of wastes based on their reduction in origin, selective collection, reusing, recycling, composting and the environmentally acceptable treatment of residues.
2. To reinforce local administrations’ capacity to take charge of urban waste management, and to favor the grouping of local entities for their joint management of wastes. The cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants must have urban solid waste collection and elimination systems that are environmentally adequate and economically viable, and they must have a local program based on waste reduction and management that is environmentally safe by the year 2005.