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THE ACCOBAMS PROGRAMME OF WORK ON MARINE
PROTECTED AREAS (MPAS)

CHEDLY RAIS

ERICH HOYT

GIUSEPPE NOTARBARTOLO DI SCIARA

1. Introduction
Setting up marine protected areas (MPAs) is one of the means recommended by
ACCOBAMS to protect cetaceans. The Agreement invites Parties to create and
maintain a network of specially protected areas in order to achieve and maintain a
favourable conservation status for cetaceans. These MPAs should be established in
areas which serve as habitats for cetaceans and/or which provide important food
resources for them.

It should be noted, however, that the ACCOBAMS Agreement is not a treaty that is
specifically directed at the legal requirements for MPAs. It states clearly that
developing protected areas for cetaceans should be done within the framework of the
Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution, 1976, and its
relevant protocol, or within the framework of other appropriate instruments.

At their last Ordinary Meeting (Palma de Mallorca, 2004), the Contracting Parties to
the ACCOBAMS Agreement issued Resolution 2.14 “Protected Areas and Cetacean
Conservation” by which they charged the Scientific Committee to:

− Draft criteria for the selection of special protected areas for cetacean
conservation;

− Prepare a special format for the proposal of protected areas for cetaceans,
adapted from the existing format for the proposal of SPAMIs from the Barcelona
Convention, and considering the above mentioned criteria;

− Gather knowledge of the existence and location of sites containing important
cetacean habitat in the Agreement area, in cooperation with the Sub Regional
Co-ordination Units. Such sites may be located either within territorial waters or
beyond them, or in both places, as appropriate.

Establishing a network of MPAs dedicated to cetacean conservation in the
ACCOBAMS area could help reduce the rate of degradation and loss of cetacean
habitats and thus contribute to achieving the CBD 2010 targets. These targets aim to
"achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the
global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the
benefit of all life on earth" (the EU specifically aims to cut biodiversity loss in half as its
contribution to CBD 2010 targets). In this context, ACCOBAMS, during the Third
meeting of its Bureau (Monaco, December 2005), recommended paying special
attention to the conservation of cetacean habitats and using to this end the
ACCOBAMS' protected areas programme being prepared as a follow-up to Resolution
2.14 "Protected Areas and cetacean conservation". The Secretariat was encouraged
to provide its assistance to the Parties in achieving the 2010 targets with a special
focus on cetacean habitat conservation. It strongly recommended the coordination

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