A month of meetings and workshops, exchanges and interactions culminated on May 20, 2022 with a major event in Monaco that brought together numerous experts involved in safeguarding Mediterranean protected areas of special importance. The first SPAMI Day, dedicated to the “Cooperation and collaboration” in Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMIs), was a great success.

The list of Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI List) was established in 2001 under the Barcelona Convention’s Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean. Today, 39 protected areas and their management form the list, a constellation of natural territories recognized for their ecological, social and cultural values. 

In Monaco, participants discussed issues pertaining new models of governance and capacity building in the marine and coastal areas. They exchanged data and experiences gathered in the day-to-day fieldwork.  May has therefore been an important month for the ENSERES Project, actively involved in supporting the SPAMI twinning programme, which will enable managers of the protected areas to consolidate the exchange of strategies focused on reinforcing Ecosystem based and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (EBM/ICZM). 

The UNEP MAP Regional Activity Centre SPA/RAC, partner of ENSERES, stressed the importance of this celebration through its director, Mr. Khalil Attia, who stated that “SPAMIs are designed to play the role of model marine protected areas, serving as frameworks for regional, bilateral and multilateral cooperation, for sharing and exchanging good practices, and transferring sustainable solutions, between the different sub-regional contexts of the Mediterranean”. Mr. Attia also added: “We believe that this first SPAMI Day celebration omens a new era of cooperation, exchange and mutual support within the SPAMI List community and beyond, and we really look forward to seeing the SPAMIs play their role as guides and models for other marine and coastal protected areas in the Mediterranean”. 

More than 100 experts took part in the event hosted by the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. The SPAMI Day final meeting was also attended by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, who shared words of hope and commitment for the future of Mediterranean protected areas: “It is more necessary than ever to develop MPAs in the Mediterranean, which must be a priority for all of us, because as we have seen today, the surface area currently protected is largely insufficient with regard to the challenges.  This is particularly true for the highly protected areas, which today are notoriously too few in number and too small in size. Our objective is to achieve a proportion of 30% of the seas under protected status as quickly as possible by 2030. Our responsibility is to work towards this goal and to mobilize all stakeholders of the seas".

Hope and commitment were embodied in Monaco by three classes of students coming from France, Italy and Monaco. The delegation of the future guardians of the Mediterranean marine ecosystems visited the Oceanographic Museum, meeting for the first time the beauty and fragility of the Mare Nostrum.

A short video about the Monaco SPAMI celebration can be found here. We even made it to Monaco InfoTV !! Watch it here in French.