MedPan North

Title: Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas Network - North

Summary: MedPAN is the network of marine protected areas (MPAs) managers in the Mediterranean. The MedPAN North project brings together 12 key actors from 6 countries (Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Slovenia). The objective of the MedPAN North project is to improve the management effectiveness of MPAs, including marine Natura 2000 sites, to benefit the marine environment and to contribute to their networking, in the framework of international and in particular European commitments in this field.

It will be reached through activities in 5 components: Innovative aspects of MPA management Sustainable management of fisheries in MPAs Sustainable management of tourism in MPAs Communication Project management. In each component, structuring transnational network activities (common recommendations, common tools…) will systematically result in the implementation of practical management activities (monitoring, equipment of sites, consultation with stakeholders, communication…) in several MPAs. Two pilot projects will be implemented. The project will contribute to the different concerned European policies: Habitats Directive, Biodiversity Action Plan, Marine Directive, Common Fisheries Policy, Maritime Policy, Tourism and their transposition into the legal framework of each concerned countries, as well as to national policies.

Thanks to the participation of key actors, it takes in account regional and local policies of the territories where the partners come from. It receives the official support of the Barcelona Convention, through its Regional Activity Center for Specially Protected Areas, which is an associate partner of the project. It complements the MedPAN South project, which aims at networking MPAs of Mediterranean third countries over 2008-2012, thanks to funding from the French Global Environment Fund, the European Commission and the MAVA foundation. The results of the project will be perpetuated through the MedPAN association, established in November 2008 with the aim to institutionalize the network’s activities.

The project will give a central place to innovation, by spreading new environmental technologies (tourism observatories for instance) and by using new ways of implementing sustainable development at sea. Activities of sustainable development in the marine environment, concerning in particular sustainable fisheries and tourism, aim at protecting employment or at creating new jobs in these two sectors. The principles of gender equality and non discrimination will be respected at all the stages of the project implementation. 3 associate partners (the French Agency for Marine Protected Areas, the MedPAN association, the Regional Activity Center for Specially Protected Areas) will contribute to strengthen the capitalisation, valorization and continuation activities of the project.

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