The Mediterranean Action Plan of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP/MAP) will take part in the 2022 UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) to convey the voice of the Mediterranean, and share lessons learned from almost five decades of multilateral ocean governance, including on issues pertaining to plastic pollution where significant progress has been made well before the breakthrough achieved at UNEA 5.2.
In the Mediterranean region, environmental multilateralism is an agent of mutual understanding and cooperation. Since its inception in 1975, UNEP/MAP—the pioneer of the UNEP Regional Seas Programme— has set in motion an exemplary multilateral endeavor involving 21 Mediterranean countries and the European Union to tackle the rising tide of pollution. The scope of this endeavor has gradually expanded to encompass all the themes pertaining to land- and sea-based pollution, biodiversity conservation, coastal management and sustainable development. The MAP-Barcelona Convention system, including the Contracting Parties, provides a unique legal, institutional and implementation framework to achieve sustainability and resilience in the Mediterranean region.
Situated at the intersection of three continents, the Mediterranean is the cradle of civilizations that shaped human history and a unique space for intercultural dialogue. Even when considered through the lens of its biophysical properties, the Mediterranean appears as a unique regional sea. Despite covering less than 1 per cent of the ocean surface, it holds one in ten of known marine species, 28 per cent of which are found nowhere else on the planet.
This is a basin under immense pressure. It is home to more than 512 million people living on its shores. No less than 24 per cent of global shipping traffic passes through its waters annually. A staggering (estimated) 730 tons of plastic is discharged into the sea every day. The Mediterranean is also warming 20 per cent faster than the global average. Today, the Mediterranean is facing the gale force winds of the triple crisis of pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss.
The Mediterranean can be assimilated to a microcosm of the global ocean. Success in addressing the triple environmental crisis would reverberate well beyond the basin and send a much-needed signal of hope that humanity can overcome differences and work together for the common objective of protecting and living in harmony with the ocean and nature in the broadest sense.
Join us in Lisbon and online, and take part in the conversation: programme of side-events
