The Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MCSD) held its 17th meeting in Athens (Greece), from 4-6th July 2017. In this forum, the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (IUCN-Med) was invited to report to the 22 state representatives the progress made towards the implementation of the IUCN Green List of Protected Areas (GLPCA) within the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development 2016-2025 (MSSD).

The IUCN Green List is one of the flagship initiative included in the MSSD to measure the effectiveness of the protected areas management in the Mediterranean region, in line with Objective 2 of the strategy. Moreover, IUCN-Med also presented the progress made in promoting the Green List standard in the Mediterranean, which was followed by a general discussion with members of the MCSD for their comments.

The pilot phase of the IUCN Green List Programme began in the Mediterranean in 2013, to test the standard in 3 countries. 24 of the tested sites obtained a GLPCA award at the World Parks Congress held in Sydney in 2014, 8 of them are located in France, Italy and Spain. Currently, IUCN-Med is supporting France, Italy and Spain involvement in a LIFE project assessing the feasibility of Green List standard against Natura 2000 network. Furthermore, the IUCN-Med team continues working with Mediterranean countries to promote the standard in the region and is working closely with national authorities of Algeria, Lebanon and Jordan, for this.

The IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas is a global initiative to encourage, achieve and promote effective, equitable and successful protected and conserved areas. To be added to the Green List, protected and conserved areas have to show that they meet the indicators of the GLPCA Standard by means of an independent evaluation.

This meeting was organised by the UN Environment/ Coordinating Unit for the Mediterranean Action Plan Secretariat to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols. The MCSD, as an advisory body to the Barcelona Convention and a forum for debate, can provide substantial contribution on these issues, in view also of its COP 20 that will be held in Tirana, Albania, 25-26 October 2017.

For more information: Carla Danelutti

Photo: © GLPA Photography| Pyrenees National Park (France)