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SUSTAINABLE FINANCING OF MPAs IN THE MEDITERRANEAN: A FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

GEF-6 allocated to
Country biodiversity
(US$)
Albania 1,500,000
Algeria 4,090,000
Egypt 4,450,000
Lebanon 1,500,000
Libya 1,500,000
Montenegro 1,500,000
Morocco 4,900,000
Tunisia 1,500,000
Turkey 7,140,000
Total 28,080,000

Table 25: GEF-6 allocation to biodiversity
(Source: GEF-6 Stars allocation)

For the purpose of resource projections from the LIFE program, the remaining financial
resources from the EU LIFE program were taken into consideration. In addition to that, it was
assumed that investments from LIFE will remain at the same level as in the previous period
(2010-2014), which represents €37M. These resources were projected over the period
(2014-2020). This assumption is motivated by the fact that member States have already
engaged in the process of requesting financial resources from the EU, which may increase
the remaining financial resources from LIFE. Marine Protected Areas may get resources
from the LIFE program as well as from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. The latter
is not commonly used to promote marine Natura 2000 but has huge potential for the
monitoring, restoration and management of Marine Protected Areas.
As a result, the assessment up to 2020 for non-EU countries shows continued flow, but with
a downward trend, of remaining financial international resources, mainly due to the
availability of resources for existing projects in Albania, Egypt and Tunisia. International
funding is greater than the resources from central budgets for the first three years of
projections. The trend is reversed from 2016 onwards. Total remaining funding from
international cooperation could increase once projected investments from GEF-6 are taken
into account, which would increase resource mobilisation.
The assessment up to 2020 for EU member states shows the same descending trend as for
the resources from the EU LIFE program. This is due to the project cycle of LIFE programs
that comes to the end by 2019. Over the period 2014-2020, the central budgets curve is
greatly superior to the contribution from EU funding. The total central budget contribution
amounts to €333,233,264, while the total contribution of LIFE projects amounts to
€21,465,665.
This assessment should be taken as a proxy of the actual financial resources available at
the national level. The assumption of constant levels of central budgets is a reliable
assumption due to past trends in national expenditures in the region; the assessment for
resources mobilised through international cooperation needs more in-depth analysis. Indeed,
only financial commitments were taken into consideration, which assumes that countries are
in a position to undertake activities in the expected timing of the financial programming for
disbursements. The funding trend may change, as some countries are committed to applying

May 2015 – Vertigo Lab, for MedPAN, RAC/SPA and WWF Med. Page 81