Progress report for
Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations Environment Programme/ Mediterranean Action Plan Secretariat to the Barcelona Convention and FAO General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean
Achievement at a glance
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2012 between the FAO-GFCM and UNEP/MAP is the first agreement that formalizes cooperation between a Regional Sea Convention and a Regional Fisheries Management Organization and has been proven as a fruitful instrument to support the delivery of relevant SDGs, especially SDG 14, in a coordinated manner in the Mediterranean Region.This partnership addresses the following areas of cooperation:
1. Promotion of ecosystem-based approaches for the conservation of marine and coastal environment and ecosystems, and the sustainable use of marine living and other natural resources;
2. Mitigation of the impact of fisheries and aquaculture on the marine habitats and species by the use of best available techniques in fisheries and the development of sustainable aquaculture;
3. Identification, protection and management of marine areas of particular importance in the Mediterranean;
4. Integrated maritime policy with a special emphasis on marine and coastal spatial planning, and integrated coastal zone management, and other integrated zoning approaches, with a view to mitigate cumulative risks due to reduced access and availability of space affected by multiple and increasing conflictive uses;
5. Legal, institutional and policy related cooperation.
Challenges faced in implementation
No major challengeBeneficiaries
Mediterranean countries and people
Actions
Cooperation between the two organizations is ongoing and strengthened:- Bilateral meetings take place on an annual basis, while mutual participation in meetings of relevance is ensured;
- Collaboration between the respective Compliance Committees has been initiated in 2018;
- FAO-GFCM contributed significantly in the UNEP/MAP indicator-based 2017 Mediterranean Quality Status Report;
- Cooperation takes place on a sub-regional pilot for the monitoring of the non-indigenous species related to fisheries in the Eastern Mediterranean;
- Joint Cooperation Strategy on Spatial-based Protection and Management Measures for Marine Biodiversity Among the Secretariats of ACCOBAMS, GFCM, IUCN-Med and UNEP/MAP;
- Development of FAO-GFCM recommendations to ensure compatibility with the Barcelona Convention and the SPA/BD Protocol are ongoing;
- Collaboration on marine litter is ongoing within the Regional Cooperation Platform on Marine Litter;
- Joint activities and events have been organized and further collaboration/activities are foreseen in the medium term strategies of the two organizations;
- Preparation of a joint proposal to be submitted for funding to GEF-7 are ongoing.