Environmental information in the A journalist’sMediterranean guide to key questions and institutions CREDITS The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN or Agencia EFE, concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN, Agencia EFE or other participating organizations. Reproduction of this publication for educational and other non-commercial purposes is authorized without prior written permission from the copyright holder provided the sources are fully acknowledged. Reproduction of this publication for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holder. This publication was funded by MAVA Foundation. Published by: IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation and Agencia EFE Produced by: IUCN Gland, Switzerland and Málaga, Spain; Agencia EFE, Madrid, Spain. Written and coordinated by: Catalina Arévalo and Lourdes Lázaro Marín Review: Andrés Alcántara, Juan María Calvo, Ignacio Fernández Bayo, Alain Jeudy, Arturo Larena, Sonsoles San Román y Carla Danelutti Citation: Arévalo, C., Lázaro Marín L. et al. 2016. ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. A journalist’s guide to key questions and institutions. Gland, Switzerland, and Malaga and Madrid, Spain. IUCN and Agencia EFE. 96 pp Translations: Sonsoles San Román English proofreading: C. Tribe Design: porfinlunes.es Printed by: Solprint S. L. (Málaga) ISBN: 978-2-8317-1830-9 Available from: www.iucn.org/mediterranean, www.efeverde.com © 2017 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and Agencia EFE Acknowledgements The present document is the result of a first step of collaboration with the Alliance of Mediterranean News Agencies and its environmental and scientific journalists. The related work involved as well the French, Italian and Spanish Associations of environmental and scientific journalists. Our thanks go first to these institutions and journalists. Special recognition is due to Chantal Menard and Catherine Piante from WWF Mediterranean programme for their support and revision, as well as the contribution of Mailis Renaudin on Mediterranean wetlands. We also would like to thank Hoda Elturk from UNEP-MAP for her support to the process and Analía Iglesias for her inputs. We also extend our thanks to the following experts contacted: Federico Martire, Coordinator Branch Office for the Western Mediterranean, ENPI CBC Juan Carlos del Moral, Coordinator of Bird studies and Monitoring, SEO/BirdLife Natividad Sánchez, Senior Communications Officer, Oceana Europe Oscar Esparza Alaminos (PhD), Marine Programme, WWFSpain Pep Arcos, Biologist and Marine Programme Head, SEO/BirdLife Puri Canals, Chair, MedPAN Ricardo Aguilar, Scientific Director, Oceana Europe We are particularly grateful to the MAVA Foundation for the funding that made it possible to produce this publication and set up a network of environmental information journalists in the Mediterranean. About the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges. IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization, with more than 1,300 government and NGO members and almost 15,000 volunteer experts in some 185 countries. IUCN’s work is supported by over 1,000 staff in 45 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world. The IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation was opened in October 2001 with the core support of the Spanish Ministry of Environment, the regional Government of Junta de Andalucía and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). The Centre’s mission is to influence, encourage and assist Mediterranean societies to conserve and use sustainably the natural resources of the region and work with IUCN members and cooperate with all other agencies that share the objectives of the IUCN. www.iucn.org/mediterranean About EFE The leading Spanish language news agency and the fourth largest news agency in the world, with more than seventy five years of experience guarantees its impartiality, its power, its credibility and its immediacy. A multimedia news company with a network of journalists worldwide, more than 3,000 professionals of 60 nationalities working 24 hours a day in over 181 cities in 120 countries, and four publishing houses in Madrid, Bogota, El Cairo and Rio de Janeiro. EFE distributes almost 3 million pieces of news every year in various news formats: text, photographs, audio, video and multimedia, reaching more than 2,000 news media in the world every day. The Agency’s photographical library stores 15 million documents in the form of glass plates, negatives and slides. EFE and BBVA (a Spanish banking group) are sponsoring the Foundation for Urgent Spanish (Fundéu), an institution that encourages the correct use of Spanish in the media. www.efe.com About AMAN The Alliance of Mediterranean News Agencies (AMAN) has its origins in the Tunis Declaration, drafted as a result of the international colloquium “The Future of Communication in the Mediterranean”, and organized by the Tunisian news agency TAP in 1991. The objectives of AMAN are to facilitate information exchange, especially in those ambits that affect the Mediterranean region and, moreover, to strengthen dialogue, development and cooperation between the agencies which form part of the organization. Members: AA-Anadolu Agency (Turkey), AFP-Agence France Presse (France), AMI-Agence Mauritanienne d’Information (Mauritania), ANA-MPA-Athens News Agency (Greece), ANSA-Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (Italy), APS-Algerie Presse Service (Algeria), ATA-Albanian Telegraphic Agency (Albania), CNA-Cyprus News Agency (Cyprus), EFE (Spain), HINA-Hrvatska Izvjestajna Novinska Agencija (Croatia), LANA-Lybian News Agency (Lybia), LUSA-Agencia de Noticias de Portugal (Portugal), MAP-Agence Maghreb Arabe Presse (Morocco), MENA-Middle East News Agency (Egypt), NNA-National News Agency (Lebanon), SANA-Syrian Arab News Agency (Syria), TANJUG (Serbia), TAP-Agence Tunis Afrique Presse (Tunisia), WAFA-Palestine News Agency (Palestine). www.aman-alliance.org Table of contents 1. Foreword ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 2. Preface ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 3. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................................. 10 3.1. Background ..................................................................................................................................................................... 10 3.2. How to use this guide ................................................................................................................................................. 10 4. The state of play of the environment ................................................................................................................................12 5. Major environmental challenges in the region ..............................................................................................................24 6. Environmental governance in the Mediterranean ........................................................................................................34 6.1. Multilateral environmental agreements ...............................................................................................................36 6.1.1. International environmental conventions and protocols .......................................................................36 6.1.2. Regional environmental conventions and institutions ..........................................................................38 6.2. Legal framework of the Mediterranean Sea: from coastal maritime zones to the high seas ................................................................................................. 40 6.3. The European Union and the Mediterranean.....................................................................................................42 6.4. The Arab Maghreb Union and the Mediterranean ...........................................................................................43 7. Governmental and non-governmental environmental and scientific organizations in the region .............................................................................................................................. 44 7.1. International organizations ...................................................................................................................................... 44 7.2. National organizations ...............................................................................................................................................47 8. Journalists and environmental information in the Mediterranean .........................................................................54