Legislation for: National Report on the technical implementation of the SPA & Biodiversity Protocol

Legal instrument title

Barcelona Convention Article 26 of Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and Coastal Region of the Mediterranean

Participating countries/territories

Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey

General comments

The Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean was adopted on 10 June 1995 by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution and its Protocols, held in Barcelona. This Protocol, which replaces the Protocol concerning Mediterranean Specially Protected Areas of 1982 in accordance with its Article 32, entered into force on 12 December 1999. The Annexes to the Protocol were adopted on 24 November 1996 by the Meeting of Plenipotentiaries on the Annexes to the Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean, held in Monaco.

The SPA & Biodiversity Protocol aims to protect marine areas which are important for the safeguard of the natural resources and natural sites of the Mediterranean Sea Area, as well as for the safeguard of cultural heritage in the region. Consequently, it provides for the designation and management of Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMIs).

Additional countries reporting formally:
Israel, Lebanon, Syria & the EC.

SPA/RAC MedSIG (Geographic Information System on Biodiversity in the Mediterranean) is available at http://medgis.rac-spa.org/

EEA EUNIS biodiversity database includes also Meditarranean Specially Protected Areas (http://eunis.eea.europa.eu/).