The Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI) are being celebrated this year with more than a month of events. The SPAMI Day started on the 15^th of April and will end in the Principality of Monaco on the 20^th of May, with a special meeting. As the theme chosen for series of meeting and workshops, “Cooperation and collaboration”, suggests, the main goal is that of strengthening the bond of the 39 protected areas and their managements, funded in 2001 under the Barcelona Convention’s Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean. 

“With the SPAMI Day we want to improve the exchange of information and the networking among our partners, encourage effective management and reduce the gap existing between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean”, says Saba Guellouz, project coordinator of SPA/RAC, the organizing institution that since 1985 has been supporting the Mediterranean countries in implementing the Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity (SPA/BD) Protocol. 

SPA/RAC (Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas), which is a partner of the ENSERES Project, considers the 39 members of the SPAMI List as a unified place where the sustainable future of the Mediterranean can be built through an innovative approach to integrated management. “For this reason, the SPAMI Day is a perfect occasion to communicate what SPAMI represents, the importance of biodiversity and conservation, the best practices that have been adopted in other spots of the Mediterranean”, underlines Dorra Maaoui, SPA/RAC’s communication officer. 

In the context of ENSERES, the SPAMI twinning programme will be supported, enabling the exchange of experiences of SPAMI managers. The programme will reinforce the Ecosystem based management/Integrated Coastal Zone Management (EBM/ICZM) implementation and the use of the ENSERES toolkit in the selected SPAMIs. 

Visits and workshops have been organized in almost every protected area included in the list. In Monaco the SPAMI Team will accompany three classes of students coming from France, Italy and Monaco itself through a visit to the Oceanographic Museum. The day after, on the 20^th, all the partners will gather for the final plenary meeting.