Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of the countries is monitored by an annual report discussing the country's
existing action plans, programmes and measures for pollution control and
how well these comply with national, regional or international legislation.
All the above activities have to be described in agreements between each
country and MED POL.
From 2005 until 2013, a new phase of MED POL has come into opera-
tion as put forward in the 13th Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting
Parties to the Barcelona Convention (UNEP/MAP, 2003). However, the
starting points for its objectives and goals are those set out in Phase III,
which was considered adequate for supporting the overall objectives of the
Convention and the protocols. In that respect it will continue to operate
with the same tools (monitoring, compliance monitoring, assessments,
capacity building, and so on). However, taking into account recommen-
dations of the evaluation of Phase III (UNEP/MAP, 2005b), it focuses
more on some aspects of Control and Assessment and Public Participation
and it tries to use the Ecosystem Approach more widely in all its aspects
(UNEP/MAP, 2005c).
The environmental management component of MAP
The MAP envi-
ronmental management component is called 'Integrated Planning of the
Development and Management of the Resources of the Mediterranean
Basin' (UNEP, 1978) and was the i rst of the main aspects of MAP to be
implemented. Its aim is also to protect the Mediterranean marine environ-
ment but instead of focusing only on pollution sources, it integrates devel-
opment issues of the region in the sense of environmental management.
From the beginning it was divided into a long-term research and study
programme, the Blue Plan and a more straightforward and immediate
programme aiming at performing specii c actions, the Priority Actions
Programme (Raftopoulos, 1993).
To assist implementation of the Blue Plan, a Regional Activity Centre
was established in France, namely the BP/RAC. Initially the Blue Plan
performed 12 investigative thematic studies with the help of experts from
both North and South Mediterranean in each study. Later on a more thor-
ough and complete scientii c study was performed in order to examine the
potential for integrating social and economic development in the region
to enhance environmental protection. A synthesis and presentation phase
was also planned in order to guarantee dissemination of the results of the
above studies, nevertheless the Blue Plan was criticized for not being able
to achieve that goal (Raftopoulos, 1993, p. 27). According to Raftopoulos,
it has not succeeded in getting through to the non-expert Mediterranean
community such as stakeholders, or the wider public, mainly due to a poor
communication network.
