Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
decision-making is given to the Meetings of the Contracting Parties, which
occur every two years, and rel ect shared interests of all the Parties. They
also make sure that current legal obligations are met, and oversee forma-
tion of new rules. The second authority is the Secretariat of MAP, based
in Athens, which supports its operation by carrying out all the adminis-
trative tasks that secure its smooth implementation, but which also helps
to integrate stakeholder interests into the legislative goals (Raftopoulos,
1993, p. 73).
Moreover, following launch of the MAP II process and a shift towards a
'sustainable development' orientation, the Mediterranean Commission on
Sustainable Development (MCSD) was set up as an advisory body to MAP
in 1996 as a think-tank on policies for promoting sustainable development
in the Mediterranean Basin. Moreover, the operation of MAP is supported
through six Regional Activity Centres (RACs) in six Mediterranean cities,
which help operations in a more decentralized way under supervision
of the Secretariat, each of ering expertise in specii c i elds of action for
facilitating the operation of MAP, as shown in Table 7.2.
The environmental assessment component of MAP
The environmental
assessment component of MAP, stated in the oi cial text of UNEP (1978)
as the 'Co-ordinated Pollution Monitoring and Research Programme in
the Mediterranean' is widely known as MED POL. It is the most straight-
forward technical aspect of MAP and has played 'an important cohesive
role for the development of a concrete, scientii cally based, regional
approach to the problems of the Mediterranean pollution' (Raftopoulos,
1993, p. 5). MED POL operates in phases. Its i rst phase, MED POL -
Phase I, lasted from 1975 until 1980. At that time there was not enough
scientii c expertise either in the number of trained scientists or in terms
of facilities established, therefore it was constructed upon pilot projects.
This was considered a necessary condition, bearing in mind that full-scale
regional assessments require identii ed pollution problems common to all
the participating states (Raftopoulos, 1993). Initially there were seven pilot
projects approved in 1975 followed by several others to support the pro-
gramme. States had designated national research centres to participate in
the pilot projects, and the planning and carrying out of necessary actions
was a collaborative ef ort of UNEP with several international organiza-
tions (ECE, UNIDO, FAO, WHO, WMO, UNESCO, IAEA and IOC of
UNESCO). According to Raftopoulos (1993, pp. 8-9) MED POL - Phase
I proved largely successful in transferring technology and scientii c exper-
tise to many Mediterranean states, especially in less-developed countries
since UNEP at the time followed a policy of allowing most of the resources
to those needing them most.
