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International Coastal Oceans: The Mediterranean Sea. Integrated Coastal Management. Continuous, interactive, participatory, consensus-building process comprised of a related set of tasks, carried out to achieve a set of goals Basin-wide Approach River basins and coastal zones
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Integrated Coastal Management • Continuous, interactive, participatory, consensus-building process comprised of a related set of tasks, carried out to achieve a set of goals • Basin-wide Approach • River basins and coastal zones • Weaves together social, political, economic and environmental issues • 50% of the world’s population lives within 60 km of a coastline
Mediterranean Sea • 3 continents • 22 countries • 46,000 km coastline • 970,000 sq. mi area • 132 mln people • 1% of world’s marine area • 6% of world’s marine species • 28% of world’s oil traffic
Sources Land-Based Agricultural Runoff Rivers – Po, Rhone, Nile 650 mln tons of sewage annually 70% of wastewater is untreated Tourism – over 200 mln tourists annually Land development Oil shipping 1 mln tons of crude oil annually Overfishing 1.5 mln tons of fish caught annually 80-90 year renewal rate Impacts Depletion of fish stocks and catch weight Temperature change atmosphere and ocean Deforestation Desertification Loss of biodiversity Decrease in water quality increased salinity Sources and Impacts of Pollution
Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) • Barcelona Convention – 1975 • “take all appropriate measures to prevent, abate and combat pollution in the Mediterranean Sea area and to protect and improve the marine environment in the area” • 6 Protocols • Land-Based Sources • Dumping • Offshore • Hazardous Waste • Emergency • Specially Protected Areas (added in 1995)
MAP Implementation • Programme for the Assessment and Control of Pollution in the Mediterranean Region (MED POL) • Land-Based Sources, Dumping and Hazardous Wastes Protocols • Coastal Areas Management Programme (CAMP) • Government and international financial institutions collaborative effort for sustainable development • The Mediterranean Environment and Developing Observatory (MEDO) • Provide scientific and objective information to policy-makers with regards to sustainable development • Regional Activity Centers • Implement MAP components within a region
Problems with MAP • Initially, framework was too weak to implement protocols • Amended Convention (1995) has not been fully ratified • Discrepancy between wealth, resources and political ideology • Political conflict
It is difficult to incorporate all the visions of the Barcelona Convention into an actual environmental plan. Is the six protocol/ICM approach feasible? Should only one protocol be highlighted at a time? If so, which one first? • Since not all countries have ratified the Barcelona Convention, its protocols and amendments, should the countries that have enact the policies of the Convention? • A major cause prohibiting the implementation of the Convention is the unequal distribution of wealth and resources as well as different political ideologies. What could the Convention do to better encourage all countries to participate in the Mediterranean Action Plan? • If financing the protocols is prohibiting a country from ratifying the Convention, is it the responsibility of the more able countries of the Convention to financially assist the implementation of the protocols?
Last November the oil tanker Prestige sank of the northwest coast of Spain and spilled 64,000 tons of oil in the Atlantic Ocean. This spill has affected about 30,000 people directly, and is estimated that clean-up will cost approximately €5 billion, according to a WWF report. Given that the Mediterranean Sea accounts for 28% of the world’s oil traffic, the sea is at high risk for a spill of this magnitude. • What should be done to prevent, as best as possible, a situation like this in the Sea? • 1 million tons of oil is spilled, accidentally or deliberately, into the Sea each year, that is the equivalent of 15 Prestige spills. International attention and aid is brought to acute events, but not to the ubiquitous polluting. • At what point will this daily polluting be considered a crisis? What can be done to alert the public and policy-makers that this should be dealt with before it becomes a crisis?
