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SUSTAINABLE FINANCING OF MPAs IN THE MEDITERRANEAN: A FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

 Foreign currencies (US dollars and currencies outside the Euro) were converted into
Euros using the monthly average exchange rate of December 2014 (Banque de
9
France ). Financial data is presented in current prices.
 For the financial resources from international cooperation (Bilateral ODA, GEF and
UN agencies, EU funds), a distinction was made between grants and co-funding by
governments.
 Data on financial resources from bilateral ODA was reported as yearly disbursements
allocated per project and per country, as they represent the effective current annual
expenditure (see Appendix 5). From observation of financial data from GEF and EU
programs, there is a lead time between agreed commitments and effective use of the
available international financial resources. There may be a fixed time window before
a country receives initial disbursements, which made the assessment of the effective
level of investments per year difficult over the studied period.
 Therefore, for the financial resources from GEF (and GEF agencies) and EU Funds,
reported as commitments, the total budget was divided by the duration of the project
(Total amount of resources / N years of project implementation), as a first
approximation of disbursement per year and per project.
 For the country level analysis, the assessment was restricted to the period 2012-
2014. Financial data outside this timeframe was excluded.
 Within the scope of financial resources channeled through GEF, bilateral ODA and
EU funds, the projects were analysed in detail and an estimate made of the amount
of money that might have finally been allocated to MPA activities. Thus, the portion of
the total budget corresponding to MPAs was isolated based on the GEF project
identification form, ODA project description and EU LIFE project description.

e) Type of analysis

The analysis of resource mobilisation for MPAs in the Mediterranean region followed the
standards agreed by Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Countries in
the Mediterranean region have several channels from which they get financial resources:
 Only countries eligible to receive bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA)
and multilateral aid (from the GEF and GEF agencies) were assessed. National
contributions as part of the co-funding requirements for projects from multilateral and
bilateral cooperation were highlighted. These resources have to be included in the
national budget and denote the financial effort made for MPAs.

 EU countries are the main contributors to the ODA in this region, which excludes
them as recipients. However, EU member countries in the Mediterranean receive
financial support from EU institutions. For those, the main focus was on assessment
of the EU LIFE program in the region.
 Countries can also acquire resources from NGOs, foundations, trust funds and/or
donations. These resources are usually grants that generally serve as instruments to
raise supplementary funding from other donors or are used to supplement national
investments from governments and NGOs. The private sector financial contribution
and NGO donations are usually resources allocated to specific international or

9 - https://www.banque-france.fr/economie-et-statistiques/changes-et-taux/les-taux-de-change-salle-des-marches/parites-
moyenne-mensuelle.html (online consultation January 23rd 2015)

May 2015 – Vertigo Lab, for MedPAN, RAC/SPA and WWF Med. Page 36