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main instruments, institutions and initiatives devoted to Mediterranean conservation and in particular
to the creation and management of protected areas in the Mediterranean Sea.

• Background: geographical scale, participating countries, overarching goals and objectives of
the policy framework in the Mediterranean Sea region

- Mediterranean Action Plan and Barcelona Convention
In 1975, 16 Mediterranean countries and European Community adopted Mediterranean Action Plan
(MAP). The MAP was the first-ever plan adopted as a Regional Seas Programme under United
Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) umbrella.
In 1976, these Parties adopted the Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against
Pollution (Barcelona Convention).
In 1995, the Action Plan for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Sustainable
Development of the Coastal Areas of the Mediterranean (MAP Phase II) was adopted by the
Contracting Parties (21 countries) to replace the Mediterranean Action Plan of 1975. At the same time
the Parties adopted an amended version of the Barcelona Convention of 1976, renamed Convention
for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean.
The Barcelona Convention scope covers all maritime spaces of the Mediterranean Sea, which are
under sovereignty or jurisdiction of the coastal States or in the high sea, it include also gulfs and
coastal areas.
Actually the Barcelona Convention has given rise to seven Protocols addressing specific aspects of
Mediterranean environmental conservation:
• Dumping Protocol (from ships and aircraft);
• Prevention and Emergency Protocol (pollution from ships and emergency situations);
• Land-based Sources and Activities Protocol;
• Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity Protocol;
• Offshore Protocol (pollution from exploration and exploitation) ;
• Hazardous Wastes Protocol ;
• Protocol on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM).

- Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity Protocol
The Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas (SPA) and Biological Diversity in the
Mediterranean was adopted by the contracting parties in 1995.
The main objectives of the Protocol is the conservation and the sustainable use of biological diversity
in the Mediterranean, by establishing specially protected areas in the marine and coastal zones subject
to the sovereignty or jurisdiction of the Parties. The Parties shall also cooperate in transboundary
specially protected areas and shall take protection measures with regard to the rules of international
law.
The Protocol applies to all the maritime waters of the Mediterranean, irrespective of their legal
condition (be they maritime internal waters, historical waters, territorial seas, exclusive economic
zones, fishing zones, ecological zones, high seas), to the seabed and its subsoil and to the terrestrial
coastal areas designated by each of the Parties.

The Protocol provides for the establishment of a list of Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean
Interest (SPAMI List). The SPAMI List may include sites which “are of importance for conserving the
components of biological diversity in the Mediterranean; contain ecosystems specific to the
Mediterranean area or the habitats of endangered species; are of special interest at the scientific,
aesthetic, cultural or educational levels”

The procedures for the listing of SPAMIs are specified in detail in the Protocol (Art. 9). The Protocol
is completed by three annexes, which were adopted in 1996 in Monaco, namely the Common criteria
for the choice of protected marine and coastal areas that could be included in the SPAMI List (Annex
I), the List of endangered or threatened species (Annex II), the List of species whose exploitation is
regulated (Annex III).

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