UNEP(DEC)MED WG

UNEP(DEC)/MED WG.268/12
Annex III
Page 3
Summary of National Reports on Implementing the Protocol concerning
Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean
Introduction
The present document, which is a synthesis of the information collected from the
national reports, was prepared on the basis of an improved format. For more clarity,
some information was given in the form of tables, to make the progress made in
implementing the SPA Protocol in the Mediterranean more clearly visible.
The general information that emerges from the national reports is that few new
Specially Protected Areas have actually been created since the last Meeting of Focal
Points (Marseilles, France, 2003). Efforts have been directed more to improving
institutional and regulatory aspects and to the tools aimed at protecting SPAs and
conservation of species and biodiversity, than to creating new Areas.
As to countries joining the relevant regional and international agreements, eight
instruments are taken into consideration by the countries in their attempts to protect
the marine environment generally and to protect species, resources and natural
habitats of ecological and environmental interest for protecting wildlife:
- The Barcelona Convention,
- the Convention on the Protection of the Mediterranean Marine and Coastal
Environment and its Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and
Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean,
- the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands,
- the Convention on Biological Diversity,
- the Berne Convention on the Conservation of Wildlife and Natural Habitats,
- the Bonn Convention on Conservation of Migrant Wild Fauna Species,
- the CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora,
- the ACCOBAMS Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the
Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area.
For those countries that are members of the European Union (Spain, Italy, France,
Slovenia, Greece, Malta and Cyprus), the directives on protection and conservation,
particularly Directive 92/43/EC on Habitats and Directive 79/409/EC (Natura 2000),
were integrated within the national legislation; they cover, according to the writers of
the concerned reports, at least in part, the countries’ obligations under the Protocol.
In certain countries, a step by step approach is followed aiming at observing the
Protocol provisions to the extent of availability of resources (e.g. funding).
I- General information
The general information requested includes the identity of the writer of the report and
the body or authority to whom s/he is responsible, and the parties or persons who
contributed to the elaborating of the report and/or provided pertinent information,
including their addresses. It should be noticed here that the reports were generally