Geographical coverage and effectiveness of the UNEP Convention on the Mediterranean

The consideration of the regional scale, intended as a multi-national scale (grand espace according to the French terminology), has acquired political importance because of three factors: 1. adoption of a regional approach by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the emerging need for a similar approach within Human Dimensions of Environmental Global Change Programme (HDEGCP), briefly called Human Dimensions Programme (HDP); recommendations by Agenda 21, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, 1992), to undertake sustainable development-aimed actions on all the scales, including the regional (multi-national) scale; design and implementation of the Regional Seas Programme, United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), which for the first time has dealt with ocean management on the regional scale. from this basis, the Mediterranean region, i.e. the space extending from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Sea of Azov, has gained special geopolitical relevance, inter alia due to the geopolitical changes after the end of the cold war, the adoption of the UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan (1976) and its implementation (1995), in association with the Barcelona Convention (1976, amended in 1995), as well as the adoption of the Action Plan for the Black Sea (1994). s context two crucial issues will be considered: (1) the geographical coverage of the UNEP/MAP Convention on the Mediterranean Sea and its role for the management of natural resource uses; and (2) the membership geographical coverage by which the Convention and its related protocols have been characterised. The combined analysis will lead us to focus on the efficacy of the Convention and the effectiveness of the subsequent political actions.