Activities

The first regional technical workshop took place in Beirut, Lebanon from 8-9 November 2011. Three main themes were selected for the workshop – marine protected areas, underwater cultural heritage and oil and gas incident response. The meeting was well attended, with a range of stakeholders and interests represented, and the meeting delivered interesting and lively discussions which identified many of the challenges but also potential for IMP.

Concerning marine protected areas it was noted that the Mediterranean was currently falling short of international commitments to establish networks of marine protected areas but that there were many challenges to establishing MPAs in the region, including lack of detailed scientific knowledge.

Concerning underwater cultural heritage, presentations outlined the legal regime for protecting UCH, the methods to identify and manage UCH and the potential for building tourism businesses on UCH.

Concerning oil and gas it was noted that the need to develop contingency planning procedures for offshore oil and gas activities in the Mediterranean was an urgent one, but that there was much existing practice in vessel-source pollution to draw on. It was also noted that this was an area frequently suitable for subregional cooperation.