Page 8 - DAnna_Badalamenti_alii_2013

• Contribution of maritime sectors to the national economy
Maritime activities produce goods and services worth almost 2.7% of the Italian GDP, equal to
approximately 39.6billion euro in 2008 value, providing work for more than 164,000 individuals
directly employed in the maritime sectors and 230,000 engaged in all the other manufacturing
activities and services (upstream and downstream).
• Unemployment rate
The global Italian unemployment was 8.4% (2010 est.) but it reached 25,44% if youth ages 15-24
unemployment was considered (male: 23.3%; female: 28.7% ). Sicily's unemployment rate was 14.7%
(2010 est.) and it is the highest among the Italian regions. The youth ages 15-24 unemployment was
29.8%. In 2010 (Bank of Italy data), in the Sicilian labour market, the number of persons in work
diminished again and the employment rate declined for the fourth year running. The employment rate
among women is structurally low, about half the rate for men and the number of job-seekers grew.

• Administrative structure (eg degree of autonomy of local/sub-national government)
The administrative structure of the Italian Republic is composed by 15 regions and 5 autonomous
regions. A federalism process (deregulation and decentralization of some rules from the central to
regional government) to provide more autonomy to regions is still in progress.
Since 1946, Sicily, together with the Eolian, Egadi, Pelagie, Ustica and Pantelleria islands, is an
autonomous Region, having a juridical personality, within the political unity of the Italian State.
Sicilian region has legislative power in many sectors such as agriculture and forest, tourism, fishing
and hunting but it has no authority in the institution of marine protected areas. In Sicily there are 9
regional provinces and the Egadi Islands belong to the Regional Province of Trapani.

• The Italian average Governance capacity index was 0.52 (2010 est.)
• Gini index of income disparity (UCL can provide this index for each relevant country)
The distribution of family income disparity (Gini index) calculated in 2010 was 36.03

Most of the indices listed above can be found at in CIA World Factbook
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/), governance indicators for countries
are measured by the World Bank and can be found at www.govindicators.org.

1.3 The regional policy framework within which your specific WP6 focus is ‘nested’, eg regional
sea action plans.

• How the regional policy framework come into existence in the SoS
The Strait of Sicily is comprised between the international waters off the African coast, the southern
coast of Sicily, and the waters surrounding the Maltese archipelago. It roughly coincides with the FAO
GSAs 15 and 16, except in the fact that the Egadi Islands are completely incorporated in the study area
for the MESMA purposes. Such definition embraces an area characterized by high seas with sprinkle
small islands, unique oceanographic features, large habitat heterogeneity, huge (beta) diversity,
exceptionally high productivity, and a massive cultural heritage.
The entire area holds the homelands of very different human populations which heavily exploit a vast
array of marine resources from ancient times. As a result of the lack of an unified policy among
nations and sectors, Sicily inherits a complex composite of conflicts among different uses of the
marine realm at several spatial and temporal scales.
The policy framework of such complex context necessarily refer to “Mediterranean Sea” region and in
particular to Central Mediterranean and Western sub-regions (Figure 4).
Regarding Mediterranean region agreements and legal instruments, several offer particular potential to
the protection of living marine resources, the regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs)
and species-specific regional conservation agreements.
As our specific WP6 focus deals with maintaining or restoration to favourable conservation status of
conservation features of the SoS, the policy framework to which we refer in this section include the

6