MED Info est le bulletin électronique de MED Forum, Réseau d'ONG de la Mediterranée pour l'Environnement et le Developpement durable

EcoMediterrània: Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 643, 3r. 08010 Barcelone. Espagne.

• The Mediterranean NGOs’ Manifest in the face of the 1999 European Elections

The Mediterranean is a sea of history, of cultures, of exchanges and of religion. It is a sea of coexistence and of conflict, of similarities and differences, of degradation of the environment, but also of areas of incredible beauty. It is a sea defined by its Mediterraneanness, and a region with an enormous past, a great present, and a hopeful future.

Civil society, assembled around the NGOs and other forms of association, is convinced of the urgent need to: a) establish in the Mediterranean the groundwork for arresting the destructive effects provoked by poverty, war, pollution, intolerance, and the disappearance of natural spaces, b) implement a model of development that heads towards a sustainable co-development that will put an end to the barriers between North and South; and achieve a framework for coexistence that includes social and economic welfare, along with tolerance, peace, and democracy, ensuring a healthy environment and the protection and conservation of the historic, cultural and natural patrimony. We, the Mediterranean NGOs, grouped together within the MED Forum Network, which has assembled in its fold more than 80 NGOs from 24 countries of the Mediterranean Basin, wish to manifest the importance of civil society in the achievement of these objectives of Mediterraneanness.

In view of the coming elections to the European Parliament, we, the Mediterranean NGOs that form part of MED Forum, wish to make an appeal to all the Euro-Parliamentary Groups that will participate in these elections so that they take on concrete commitments before their voters with regard to defending a Euro-Mediterranean policy. As a step in the right direction, we hail The Barcelona Declaration, adopted in the November 1995 Euro-Mediterranean Conference, and the MEDA Program, which have defined a clear policy on the part of the European Union. But we also want to remark on the lackings of this policy: the exclusion of the Balkans from the Euro-Mediterranean Conference, the non-signing of the Conventions of Collaboration with all countries, the fact of not conditioning the financing of projects to a previous investigation on the Evaluation of its Environmental Impact, the lack of support to the participation of civil society in the Euro-Mediterranean process, the lack of aid in cooperation projects promoted by the NGOs and their networks, as well as the lack of support to international conventions applicable to the area, as is the case of the Barcelona Convention for the protection of the Mediterranean, approved in 1975 and modified in 1995 (up to this date, the European Union has not ratified it, nor has it signed or ratified some of its protocols).

It is because of all this that we, the Mediterranean NGOs organized within MED Forum, the Mediterranean NGO Network for Ecology and Sustainable Development, and in keeping with the opinions gleaned from many other civil society organizations, request that the Euro-Parliamentary Groups commit themselves to defending the following points in the new Parliament which will be formed as a result of the elections on June 13, 1999:

1. Give greater support to the Euro-Mediterranean Conference, which will mean:

• Approving the Euro-Mediterranean Letter for Peace and Stability.
• The active participation of civil society in the Euro-Mediterranean process through its involvement in Mediterranean NGO networks and other representative associations that are incorporated as observers throughout all the different phases of the process.

2. Implement the necessary measures to ensure that the creation of a Mediterranean Free Trade Zone can count on the necessary North-to-South transference of economic and technological resources so as to guarantee the reduction or elimination of the undesirable social and environmental impact that this will provoke. The creation of this MFTZ is a long process that will go on until 2010, and it does not only concern economic sectors, but rather it needs the participation of the citizenry as a whole. Through the NGOs, civil society should be able to guarantee its participation in the beginnings of this process.
3. Incorporate all the countries of the Mediterranean Basin in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Conference, including the Balkan countries and Lybia as the sole guarantee that the policy put into practice is genuinely Mediterranean.
4. Ensure that the MEDA Program contributes to sustainable development in the Mediterranean region by favoring the countries in most need, and dedicating a specific budget of approximately 10% of the MEDA for the development of the SMAP program (Short - and Medium-term Priority Environmental Action Program for the Mediterranean), as well as creating a MEDA- NGO Fund endowed with 20 million Euros during a 5-year period and destined to projects developed by the NGOs. These economic funds should make it feasible to carry out the priority actions listed in the SMAP program and in the MED Forum 2000 Agenda, which are focused on: the integrated waste and water management, the fight against desertification, the integrated coastal management, the protection of biological diversity, and the promotion of sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean.
5. Guarantee and reinforce the NGO networks as valid instruments in strengthening national organizations of civil society in all the Mediterranean countries, and as valid mediators between the European Union and the rest of the Mediterranean countries, favoring social and intercultural coexistence as the best way to achieve distention in a conflict-ridden zone.
6. Speed up the ratification of the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean, modified thoroughly in 1995, as well as requesting the urgent ratification of five of its Protocols which had already been signed four years ago by the rest of the countries, and asking for the signing of two more Protocols that have not yet been signed.

We, the Mediterranean NGOs members of MED Forum, the Mediterranean NGO Network for Ecology and Sustainable Development, request that all the European parliamentary groups make known to us their commitment with regard to these six points. MED Forum will broadcast all the positions taken in all the spheres where it is of relevance.

For a live Mediterranean in a solidary Europe.

MED Forum*,

Mediterranean NGO Network

for Ecology and Sustainable Development

*MED Forum is made up by more than 80 NGOs from 24 Mediterranean countries, and has its headquarters in Barcelona (Spain). It receives the support of the European Union in developing its cooperation programs, its international dimension as spokesperson, and its Mediterranean campaigns. It is a member observer of international organizations such as ECOSOC, CSD, the Barcelona Convention, the Desertification, Biodiversity and Bern Conventions, an it is a full member of international organisms, such as the MCSD (Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development), the IUCN, the EEB, etc.

• MED Forum participates in the "Mediterranean Bank Watch Initiative"

• The creation of a small grants program to assist NGOs to investigate specific MDB investments in their respective countries.
• Production of an information toolkit on MDBs, specific to Mediterranean needs.
• Holding workshops/conferences for NGOs and others on issues such as environment impact assesment, media education and reform srategies.

• Recherche Stagiaire a Montpellier

La DIREN Languedoc-Roussillon à Montpellier recherche un vacataire pour une durée de 2 mois pendant l'été pour organiser la BDCarthage sous MapInfo.

Cette vacation peut prendre la forme d'un stage.

La DIREN est un service déconcentré du ministère chargé de l'environnement et définit au niveau régional les politiques environnement en particulier sur les domaines nature et eau.

La BDCarthage est une base de données réalisée par les agences de l'eau et le ministère chargé de l'environnement à partir de la BDCarto pour servir de référentiel eau. La BDCarthage est livrée en format Export Arc/Info et doit être remise au format MapInfo pour être utilisable. Des documentations existent sur le format cible mais ne n'ont pas été complètement formalisées.

Si vous êtes intéressé par ce stage, envoyez moi par courrier électronique (exclusivement) un petit CV et vos motivations. Après sélection, je transmettrai des propositions à la DIREN Languedoc-Roussillon.

(Regional workshop on localizing structuring sustainable development at a local level in the Arab and Mediterranean regions; "localizing" is to be understood as the carrying out of sustainable development principles on a local/municipal level: that basically means the creation of Local Agendas 21).

• METAP/CBU (Capacity Building Unity of the Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance Program)
• CEDARE (Centre for Environment & Development for the Arab Region and Europe)
• Capacity 21 of the UNDP
• MedCities

To launch a partnership initiative among all the organizing entities, national authorities, local authorities and any other possible members to stimulate the creation of Local Agendas 21 (Localizing Sustainable Development) in Albania, Croatia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, based especially on the positive experiences gathered in the last 4 countries.

• Technicians and those in charge of the 4 organizing entities (METAP, CEDARE, C-21, and MedCities)
• The national heads of the UNDP: Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt
• Representatives from the local authorities: MedCities focal points (Tirana, Zarqa, Tripoli, Tangier, Tetouan, Sousse), Barcelona, Rome and Casablanca.
• Heads of the Ministries of the Environment (Agenda 21): Croatia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.
• Other organizations: ESCWA (Economic and Social Commission for West Asia), ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives), UTO ( United Towns Organization), GTZ-Tunisia (German Cooperation Foundation), PAP/RAC of MAP, WWF Mediterranean Programme Office and MED Forum.

• The creation of a coordinating group formed by the 4 organizations that have set up the workshop plus the ICLEI, the national representatives from Turkey and Morocco, and some other city (Seville, Tetouan, Tunisia, etc. have been proposed).
• This coordinating group is supposed to act as a catalyst of all the organisms, institutions and networks already existing (among which is MED Forum), and to promote projects in certain cities; the coordinating group’s support and involvement in the projects will thus help to guarantee the obtaining of funds.
• The coordinating group will prepare the work document which will be debated in the next workshop to be held in September, possibly in Turkey.
• These results are compiled in the final document:

"The diagram of the initiative may be the following:

• The purpose of these deliberations is to gather the active groups and individuals within LSD. At a higher level there is an "umbrella" or resource group that includes all the existing networks, the national focal points, the organizations, programs, and cities interested in LSD in the Arab and Mediterranean regions.
• The idea is to create a coordinating group of the representative institutions, and to put it in charge of the agenda. It will be made up by the 4 organizers (METAP, CEDARE, C-21, and MedCities) and by ICLEI. The nucleus of the coordinating group also includes city representatives (two members) on a rotating scheme. The cities of Turkey and of Morocco will be the first ones. Morocco has been the host of this presentational workshop and Turkey has a lot of experience in the field of progress. The cities of Seville, Tetouan and Tunis are also proposed.
• The coordinating group will be the catalyst and will selectively choose the resources and experts from the "resource group" depending on the specific case to be carried out. A flexible framework will structure the work to be done, and the participation of various members from the resource group and from the ICLEI will be asked for so as to prepare "packages" and projects within the context of the specific case on hand.
• The debate in this workshop, however, has come to an end with the creation of the coordinating group, and it leaves the implementation phase to be carried out within the project proposal that will be determined in future activities."

The Session was held, as all previous ones, in the United Nations headquarters of New York, from April 19^th to April 30^th, 1999. The participants were representatives from different countries and NGOs, socio-economic entities, local authorities, and also NGO members.

The main issues of the Agenda have been:

1. Oceans and seas
2. Modalities of consumerism and production
3. Tourism
4. In-depth analysis of the Action Program for the sustainable development of small developing insular states.

After talks with the different sectors, and after the high-level meeting held with ministers, we reached a set of conclusions on the different issues discussed, especially on tourism. The Agenda was approved for the 8^th period of Sessions to be held next year, and the following points were highlighted:

1. Land-based resources
2. Economic resources, commerce and investment, economical growth
3. Sustainable agriculture

During the session different parallel acts were held, ranging from workshops of international organisms (European Union, World Bank, UNESCO, etc.) to presentations by economic organisms, programs, projects, and even NGO activities.

MED Forum, EcoMediterrània and Enda-Magreb were the only representatives from the Mediterranean NGOs that were present during this period of the sessions. Of noteworthy mention is the lack of Mediterranean content in the resolutions of the CSD.

The NGO Steering Committee of the CSD is the coordinating organism of the NGOs represented before the CSD. It is set up into regions of the world. MED Forum proposed the creation of the Mediterranean region, and the idea was accepted by all members. Likewise, with the unanimous agreement of the NGOs, MED Forum partook part in the CSD plenary meeting on tourism.

MED Forum has prepared a report on the CSD and the 7^th Period of Sessions, which at present is available in Spanish and will soon be in English. The MED Forum members who wish to participate in the preparation of the issues of the CSD 8^th Period of Sessions that will be held in the year 2000 can get in contact with the Secretary (Mar Sivill medforum@ pangea.org or fax:34 93 412 46 22).

For more information, you can connect to the following homepages on the web:

CSD UN Sustainable Development www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd.htm

Steering Committee UN CSD www.csdngo.org/csdngo

Rafael Madueño

MED Forum General Secretary

Le Fonds Catalan de Coopération au Développement a organisé cette journée avec quatre tables rondes sur les iniciatives des municipalités méditerranéennes pour la coopération au développement et avec la présentation d'une exposition: La Méditerranée: carrefour de peuples. Le Fonds, creé à 1986, gére les fonds de plusieurs mairies de la Catalogne (région de l'Espagne) et d'autres bailleurs pour réaliser de projets de coopération au Tiers Monde. Maintenant le Fonds a decidé de s'intesser notamment pour la région méditerranéenne.

MED Forum, Réseau d'ONG de la Méditerranée pour l'Ecologie et le Développement durable, était invité à participer pour parler des principaux défits environnementaux de la Méditerranée. Il s'agissait d'une brief introduction pour encadrer l'exposée ensuite de M. Abdel Rahman Tamimi, président du Palestianian Hydrology Group, une des huit ONG fondatrices de MED Forum, qui parlait sur le management de l'eau et les problèmes des ressources hidriques en Palestine.

Les autres tables rondes parlaient sur les droits de l'homme en Algérie, la societé civile au Liban et le développement local au Marroc.

Split (Croacie), 4-5 mai 1999

Une réunion du groupe de travail "Tourisme et développement durable" de la Commission Méditerranéenne de Développement Durable, dont EcoMediterrània est membre, a eu lieu à Split (Croatie), les 4-5 mai dernier.

L’objectif de la réunion était d’examiner quatorze proposition d’action et de recommandations afin d’en revoir et en préciser la formulation pour la rendre plus opérationnelle et la présenter à la 5ème réunion de la CMDD (Rome, 1-2 juillet prochain).

Ces propositions sont issues d’une part des travaux relatifs à l’atelier d’Antalya (17-19 septembre 1998) et, d’autre part, des débats lors de la 4ème réunion de la CMDD (Monaco, 20.22 octobre 1998).

Finalment, ces 14 propositions ont été regroupé en 5 domaines, à savoir renforcement des capacités politiques et institutionnelles; mise en place de réseaux; connaissance, information et sensibilisation; outils spécifiques; et étude de faisabilité pour la création d’un organisme méditerranéen.

MED Forum has initiated an intense campaign in all states to obtain the ratification of the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols (see the special MED Forum issue) which in its day was signed by all states and by the European Union. With this campaign, MED Forum intends to get at least 6 states ratify it, so that the Convention and its Protocols can finally come into force and its contents be put into practice.

In the MED Forum General Assembly held in Barcelona on the 21^st of November 1998, it was agreed that this Campaign would be launched in 1999. At the beginning of this year, the MED Forum General Secretariat addressed all states through their Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of the Environment, as well as addressing the Presidents of their Parliaments, asking them for a speedy ratification of the commitments that had been taken on by their governments over four years ago.

Up to this date, only Tunisia has ratified the modified Convention and its five Protocols. Monaco and Spain have ratified all but two of the Protocols, and Morocco and Croatia have only ratified some. The European Union has not signed all of the Protocols, and has not ratified any of the six documents.

The campaign has been broadcast in the mass media, and we have had some contact with the governments of France, Morocco, and Spain.

After the interview held with the General Secretary of the Environment of the Spanish Government, in which all the Spanish Parliamentary groups participated, the Socialist Parliamentary Group (PSOE) and the United Left Federal Group (IU) presented a parliamentary initiative on May 17, 1999.

The Popular Parliamentary Group in Congress (PP), with the joint support of the Parliamentary Groups Convergència i Unió (CiU), the Nationalist Basque Party (PNV), and the Canarian Coalition (CC), have rejected the law proposal which was presented jointly by the Socialist Parliamentary Group (PSOE) and by the United Left Federal Group (IU), and whose objective was the ratification of the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean and its Protocols. In the transactional proposal made by the PSOE and IU before the Spanish Parliament in a plenary meeting held on May 17, 1999, they urged the government, among other things, "to remit to this Chamber without delay, and before the closing of the actual period of these sessions, the Protocol for the Protection of the Mediterranean against the pollution caused by the exploration and exploitation of the continental shelf, the seabed and subsoil (known as the Seabed Protocol), and the Protocol for preventing pollution of the Mediterranean by transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal (known as the Hazardous Wastes Protocol) for their immediate ratification."

These two documents (Protocols) form part of the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean, and they were signed by the Spanish Government. The first one was signed in Madrid in 1994, and the second one was signed in Smirna (Turkey) in 1996, and up to date, the Government has not remitted them to Congress for their ratification.

In view of the plenary meeting’s rejection of the proposal to have the Government ratify the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols, MED Forum wishes to manifest its astonishment before the unacceptable arguments set forth by the Popular Parliamentary Group (PP) and by the Catalonian Parliamentary Group (CiU). In the words of the PP Congressman Mr. Medina, "the unilateral ratification of the said Protocols on the part of Spain would impose upon our country a series of obligations that the rest of the countries would not have to assume." He likewise said, "The action plans that they propose to carry out are of such magnitude that they demand an enormous budgetary sacrifice..." In the opinion of the Mediterranean NGO Network, MED Forum, who was present at the signing of the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols by the Spanish Government, these arguments are absolutely unacceptable.

MED Forum will carry on its campaign "Protect the Mediterranean? Ratify the Barcelona convention and its Protocols Now!" throughout all of the Mediterranean with the objective of getting at least six of the signatory countries to ratify the Convention and its Protocols before the XI Meeting of the Contracting Parties of the Barcelona Convention which will be held at the end of this year. We ask all governments to assume the responsibilities they took on when they signed the Convention and its corresponding Protocols. We ask all NGOs that they address their Ministers of the Environment and of Foreign Affairs, as well as their respective Parliaments, and that they send them the MED Forum document (special issue) asking them for the immediate ratification of the Convention and pending Protocols. We have also addressed the European Union and the Europarliamentary Groups asking them to sign and ratify the pending documents (see: Manifest before the European Elections of 1999).

• ELDIS - Electronic Development and Environment Information System

Eldis is a gateway to online information on development or the environment, focusing on countries of the South. Eldis makes a qualitative selection of materials and structures it for easy access

Eldis is funded by Danida and hosted by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex

ELDIS:

• is a Gateway to Information Sources Development and the Environment
• offers an easy route to the information on development and environmental issues
• is available free via the Internet
• provides an ever increasing number of descriptions and links to a variety of information sources, including WWW and gopher sites, databases, library catalogues, bibliographies, and email discussion lists, research project information, map and newspaper collections.
• where there is no Internet link available, other information on the availability of databases, CDRoms, etc. is given
• offers a data and database hosting services a partner in a number of information initiatives

The IRN is an international network with its headquarters in the United States that is dedicated to gathering and organizing information on the management of hydrographic basins. Since 1989, its ultimate goal has been to support, assess and promote campaigns of non-governmental organizations whose purpose is to stop river development programs that have a notable impact on the loss of biological diversity or on the conditions of life of local population. At present it is working in five countries affected by the construction of dams or river canalizations: Brazil, Chile, India, Indochina, Malaysia, and also the Three Gorges Dam

in China.

The IRN carries out a permanent follow-up monitoring of the investments made by development banks such as the World Bank and the Banks for the Development of Latin America, Africa and Asia; its magazine "Bankcheck" gives information on the results of its follow-up monitoring.