Strategic Partnership For The Mediterranean Brief overview of the Regional Component of the project and the current status of its implementation

The long-term goal of the Strategic Partnership (SP), with its two components the Investment Fund and Regional Component is a) to facilitate countries for the full implementation of the SAPs and NAPs thus reducing pollution from land-based sources and preserving the biodiversity and ecosystems of the Mediterranean from degradation, in line with MDG/WSSD Environmental targets, b) the leveraging of long-term financing, and c) to ensure through the Barcelona Convention and MAP systems the sustainability of activities initiated within the project beyond its specific lifetime.

Complements numerous programmes including the EC Horizon 2020 Initiative, “Sustainable MED”, Union for the Mediterranean, Adriatic Sea Environment Programme (ASEP) The objective of the Mediterranean Sea LME Strategic Partnership is to leverage reforms and catalyze investments that address transboundary pollution reduction and marine and coastal biodiversity conservation priorities identified in the SAPs for the Mediterranean basin.

Now expanded into the “Sustainable Med” programme’s Investment fund projects (aprox. 75 M US$ GEF) The objective of the proposed Investment Fund is to accelerate the implementation of transboundary pollution reduction and biodiversity conservation measures in priority hotspots and sensitive areas of selected countries of the Mediterranean basin that would help achieve the SAP MED and SAP BIO targets

12.9 M US$ plus 36.5 M US$ co-financing, 5 year duration The objective of the proposed UNEP Regional Component is to promote and induce harmonized policy, legal and institutional reforms and fill the knowledge gap aimed at reversing marine and coastal degradation trends and living resources depletion, in accordance with priorities agreed by the countries in the SAP MED and SAP BIO, and to prepare the ground for the future implementation of the ICZM Protocol.

Overall Impacts (Regional Component) 1.Legal, policy and institutional reforms, on a national and regional level: A minimum of 20 national/sub- regional policy documents; No of Regional legislation documents adopted; new tools, techniques and guidelines; 2.32 demonstration/pilot projects will be implemented resulting in overall decrease in stress reduction to the Mediterranean LME: A minimum of 15% of the 75 hotspots will be directly improved; 3.Stakeholder participation: NGO Involvement Plan, coordination amounst stakeholders, Country support programme; 4.Replication, communication and sustainable financing mechanism: 10% of the demonstration/pilot projects will be replicated during the life-span of the project;

Status of the project 1.Project endorsed in by GEF April 9 th 2008 and Internal Cooperation agreement (ICA) signed the 13 October Project Management Unit recruited: Coastal and Marine Expert (Virginie Hart) on 1 May: Administrative Officer (Giorgos Petridis) on 22 June and Project Manager (Ivica Trumbic) on 1 August WWF legal agreement signed on 14 April Legal agreements with 10 partners for project execution developed and agreed with partners and UNEP/MAP and UNEP administration and legal dept

Brief overview of activities so far 1.GEF and MAP Focal Points all informed on status of the project and requested to confirm project focal points; 2.Set-up of administrative procedures, financial reporting etc between UNEP/MAP, UNEP DEPI, UNEP DGEF and partners: complex project with several sources of funding (GEF, EC, AECID, FFEM, MAVA, etc); 3.Developed templates for the Inception report, and Monitoring and reporting procedures; 4.Monitoring and Evaluation: Completion 1 st Project Implementation Review (PIR) – July 2009

Regional and International meetings 1.Horizon 2020 to agree on synergies and joint planning with the GEF project (28-29 May 2009) 2.IOC-IUCN-NOAA Large Marine Ecosystem, 11th Consultative Committee Meeting. IOC-UNESCO, Paris, FRANCE (9-10 July 2009) 3.UNEP/MAP Focal Point meeting 7-8 July 2009, Athens 4.MCSD, Cairo (28-30 Sept), and additional session of the MAP FP’s (1 Oct) Upcoming meetings: 5.Barcelona Convention CoP (3-5 Nov) 6.5th GEF Biennial International Waters Conference, Cairns, Australia, (26-29 October 2009) 7.1 st Steering Committee meeting of the Strategic Partnership, (2-3 December 2009), Montenegro