Mediterranean countries are taking joint action to protect the region's marine environment by improving the way they report, monitor and share data about shipping pollution incidents.
A workshop delivered through the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme in Lija, Malta recently, and organised by the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (Rempec), brought together 19 officials from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Libya, Montenegro, Morocco, Tunisia and Türkiye.
The aim was to promote effective reporting, monitoring, and data sharing about oil spills from ships and other pollution incidents, which these countries are required to do as contracting parties to the Barcelona Convention.
The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean and its seven protocols constitute the principal regional legally binding Multilateral Environmental Agreement in the Mediterranean.
Participants at the workshop discussed how these efforts could enhance the Mediterranean Quality Status, which is produced by the United Nations Environment Programme to assess the state of the marine environment in the region.
They explored Rempec’s latest tools and platforms for reporting, monitoring and data-sharing, and discussed how to ensure these systems are aligned with national activities under the Basel Convention.
Discussions will inform the development of manuals, tools, and templates to streamline future reporting and monitoring processes.
