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SUSTAINABLE FINANCING OF MPAs IN THE MEDITERRANEAN: A FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

mitigation and climate change adaptation could potentially channel ODA financial resources
to Marine Protected Areas.
ODA financial support is driven by a country’s ability to propose projects that give priority to
Marine Protected Areas, which implies strong cooperation with key players in project design
and implementation.

Countries such as Tunisia and Algeria, where ODA has been maintained over the period
studied, take advantage of their strong historical relationship with France. Such strong links,
and interest from donor countries in MPAs in the region, seem to be a condition for ensuring
the continued flow of ODA resources.
Recipient countries experienced a reduction in ODA financing due the global financial crisis.
However, Marine Protected Areas remain a special area of concern, in particular when it
comes to strengthening institutional capability to maintain a sufficient flow of financial
resources to upgrade MPAs to the autonomous phase.

4.1.2 The Global Environmental Facility

The GEF is the institutional structure that operates the financial mechanism for
implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). GEF resources are
th
allocated for a period of four years. The GEF’s 5 financial cycle ran from July 2010 to June
2014. During this four-year cycle, the GEF allocated €805,052,480 to projects dealing with
biodiversity. Of this, €396,617,441 were allocated to Protected Areas (49% of total
biodiversity funding).
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For the purpose of the present study, financial resources provided by the GEF’s 5 financial
cycle (2010–2014) were reviewed, taking into account the commitments for the timeframe of
the GEF projects. From the observation of the financial data from international cooperation,
there is a lead time between the agreed commitments and the effective use of the available
international financial resources. There may be a fixed time window before a country
receives initial disbursements, which makes the assessment of the effective level of
investments per year difficult to assess over the period studied.

Co-funding
GEF trust fund Total GEF projects % of the total
Country for MPAs (in associated with in the country (in from GEF trust
euros) the GEF grant (in euros) fund
euros)
Albania 770,416 1,563,134 1,401,346 55%
Algeria 1,751,683 0%
Croatia 4,016,706 14,029,681 4,195,118 96%
Egypt 2,932,447 11,191,306 5,198,555 56%
Lebanon 770,416 989,376 1,711,135 45%
Montenegro 1,540,832 4,997,973 1,711,135 90%
Tunisia 178,412 0%
Turkey 1,865,218 3,243,857 4,982,091 37%
Total 11,896,034 36,015,327 21,129,474

Table 15: GEF trust fund allocations to Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean for 2008-2014
(Source: GEF projects database)

May 2015 – Vertigo Lab, for MedPAN, RAC/SPA and WWF Med. Page 60