2005 was an extremely important year for IUCN-Med. It marked the coming of age of the Centre in more ways than one. At the beginning of the year, our core partners, Ministry for Environment and Junta de Andalucia renewed their commitment for a further 5 years, including a decision by the Minister to assist IUCN to seek international legal status within Spain. This is a huge vote of confidence in the Centre, its staff and in IUCN generally and sets the stage for 5 more years of regional cooperation through IUCN. Once again, we would like to thanks these donors and IUCN members for their consistent support and encouragement to the IUCN mission.

Secondly, the Mediterranean members emerged from Bangkok with a series of regional Mediterranean resolutions voted by the World Conservation Congress that will take IUCN’s regional programme into new areas: notably maritime traffic and biodiversity; partnerships for conservation of mountains; in addition to existing themes of ocean governance and protected areas. This mandate allows the programme to continue to evolve according to the wishes of the members, and together with regular meetings of the chairpersons of IUCN National Committees, these resolutions are essential for guiding our programme.

In this CD we continue to inform our partners of our major activities, in English, French and Spanish, and to guide readers to relevant IUCN publications or those of our regional partners. In this way IUCN members and partners can identify programmes or initiatives they are interested in and link up with the Centre’s programme on these issues. Please do not hesitate to contact the IUCN-Med focal point for individual actions and seek more information if they spark your interest.