MULTILATERAL PROTOCOL
CONCERNING MEDITERRANEAN SPECIALLY PROTECTED AREAS
(Geneva, 3.IV.1982)
The Contracting Parties to the present Protocol,
Being Parties to the Convention for the Protection of the
Mediterranean Sea against Pollution, adopted at Barcelona on
16 February 1976,
Conscious of the danger threatening the environment of the
Mediterranean Sea Area as a whole, in view of the increasing human
activities in the region,
Taking into account the special hydrographic and ecological
characteristics of the Mediterranean Sea Area,
Stressing the importance of protecting and, as appropriate,
improving the state of the natural resources and natural sites of
the Mediterranean Sea, as well as of their cultural heritage in
the region, among other means by the establishment of specially
protected areas including marine areas and their environment.
Desirous of establishing close co-operation among themselves
in order to achieve that objective,
Have agreed as follows:
Article 1
1. The Contracting Parties to this Protocol (hereinafter
referred to as "the Parties") shall take all appropriate measures
with a view to protecting those marine areas which are important
for the safeguard of the natural resources and natural sites of
the Mediterranean Sea Area, as well as for the safeguard of their
cultural heritage in the region.
2. Nothing in this Protocol shall prejudice the codification
and development of the law of the sea by the United Nations
Conference on the Law of the Sea convened pursuant to
Resolution 2750 C (XXV) of the General Assembly of the United
Nations, nor the present or future claims and legal views of any
State concerning the law of the sea and the nature and extent of
coastal and flag State jurisdiction.
Article 2
For the purposes of the designation of specially protected
areas (hereinafter referred to as "protected areas"), the area to
which this Protocol applies shall be the Mediterranean Sea Area as
defined in article 1 of the Convention for the Protection of the
Mediterranean Sea against Pollution (hereinafter referred to as
"the Convention"); it being understood that, for the purposes of
the present Protocol, it shall be limited to the territorial
waters of the Parties and may include waters on the landward side
of the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is
measured and extending, in the case of watercourses, up to the
freshwater limit. It may also include wetlands or coastal areas
designated by each of the Parties.
Article 3
1. The Parties shall, to the extent possible, establish
protected areas and shall endeavour to undertake the action
necessary in order to protect those areas and, as appropriate,
restore them, as rapidly as possible.
2. Such areas shall be established in order to safeguard in
particular:
a) - Sites of biological and ecological value;
- The genetic diversity, as well as satisfactory population
levels, of species, and their breeding grounds and habitats;
- Representative types of ecosystems, as well as ecological
processes;
b) Sites of particular importance because of their scientific,
aesthetic, historical, archaeological, cultural or education
interest.
Article 4
The Parties to this Protocol shall, at their first meeting,
formulate and adopt, if necessary in co-operation with the
competent international organizations, common guidelines and, if
needed, standards or criteria dealing in particular with:
a) The selection of protected areas;
b) The establishment of protected areas;
c) The management of protected areas;
d) The notification of information on protected areas.
Article 5
The Parties may strengthen the protection of a protected area
by establishing, within the area to which this Protocol applies,
one or more buffer areas in which activities are less severely
restricted while remaining compatible with the purposes of the
protected area.
Article 6
1. If a Party intends to establish a protected area contiguous
to the frontier or to the limits of the zone of national
jurisdiction of another Party, the competent authorities of the
two Parties shall endeavour to consult each other with a view to
reaching agreement on the measures to be taken and shall, among
other things, examine the possibility of the establishment by the
other Party of a corresponding protected area or the adoption by
it of any other appropriate measure.
2. If a Party intends to establish a protected area contiguous
to the frontier or to the limits of the zone of national
jurisdiction of a State which is not a party to this Protocol, the
Party shall endeavour to work together with the competent
authorities of that State with a view to holding the consultations
referred to in the preceding paragraph.
3. If contiguous protected areas are established by two
Parties, or by one Party and by a State which is not a party to
this Protocol, special agreements may provide for the means
whereby the consultation or the collaboration contemplated in
paragraphs 1 and 2 respectively may take place.
4. If a State which is not a party to this Protocol intends to
establish a protected area contiguous to the frontier or to the
limits of the zone of national jurisdiction of a Party to this
Protocol, the latter shall endeavour to work together with that
State with a view to holding consultations, and possibly
concluding a special agreement as referred to in paragraph 3.
Article 7
The Parties, having regard to the objectives pursued and
taking into account the characteristics of each protected area,
shall, in conformity with the rules of international law,
progressively take the measures required, which may include:
a) The organization of a planning and management system;
b) The prohibition of the dumping or discharge of wastes or
other matter which may impair the protected area;
c) The regulation of the passage of ships and any stopping or
anchoring;
d) The regulation of fishing and hunting and of the capture of
animals and harvesting of plants;
e) The prohibition of the destruction of plant life or animals
and of the introduction of exotic species;
f) The regulation of any act likely to harm or disturb the
fauna or flora, including the introduction of indigenous
zoological or botanical species;
g) The regulation of any activity involving the exploration or
exploitation of the sea-bed or its subsoil or a modification of
the sea-bed profile;
h) The regulation of any activity involving a modification of
the profile of the soil or the exploitation of the subsoil of the
land part of a marine protected area;
i) The regulation of any archaeological activity and of the
removal of any object which may be considered as an archaeological
object;
j) The regulation of trade in and import and export of
animals, parts of animals, plants, parts of plants and
archaeological objects which originate in protected areas and are
subject to measures of protection;
k) Any other measure aimed at safeguarding ecological and
biological processes in protected areas.
Article 8
1. The Parties shall give appropriate publicity to the
establishment of protected areas, as well as of the areas provided
for in article 5, and to their markings and the regulations
applying thereto.
2. The information referred to in the preceding paragraph
shall be notified to the Organization designated in article 13 of
the Convention (hereinafter referred to as "the Organization")
which shall compile and keep up to date a directory of protected
areas in the area to which this Protocol applies. The Parties
shall supply the Organization with all the information necessary
for that purpose.
Article 9
1. The Parties shall, in promulgating protective measures,
take into account the traditional activities of their local
populations. To the fullest extent possible, no exemption which is
allowed for this reason shall be such as:
a) To endanger either the maintenance of ecosystems protected
under the terms of the present Protocol or the biological
processes contributing to the maintenance of those ecosystems;
b) To cause either the extinction of, or any substantial
reduction in, the number of individuals making up the species or
animal and plant populations within the protected ecosystems, or
any ecologically connected species or populations, particularly
migratory species and rare, endangered or endemic species.
2. Parties which allow exemptions with regard to protective
measures or do not apply such measures strictly shall inform the
Organization accordingly.
Article 10
The Parties shall encourage and develop scientific and
technical research on their protected areas and on the ecosystems
and archaeological heritage of those areas.
Article 11
The Parties shall endeavour to inform the public as widely as
possible of the significance and interest of the protected areas
and of the scientific knowledge which may be gained from them from
the point of view of both nature conservation and archaeology.
Such information should have an appropriate place in education
programmes concerning the environment and history. The Parties
should also endeavour to promote the participation of their public
and their nature conservation organizations in appropriate
measures which are necessary for the protection of the areas
concerned.
Article 12
The Parties shall, to the extent possible, establish a
co-operation programme to co-ordinate the establishment, planning,
management and conservation of protected areas, with a view to
creating a network of protected areas in the Mediterranean region,
taking fully into account existing networks, especially that of
biosphere reserves of UNESCO. There shall be regular exchanges of
information concerning the characteristics of the protected areas,
the experience acquired and the problems encountered.
Article 13
The Parties shall, in accordance with the procedures set forth
in article 14, exchange scientific and technical information
concerning current or planned research and the results expected.
They shall, to be fullest extent possible, co-ordinate their
research. They shall, moreover, endeavour to define jointly or to
standardize the scientific methods to be applied in the selection,
management and monitoring of protected areas.
Article 14
1. In applying the principles of co-operation set forth in
articles 12 and 13, the Parties shall forward to the Organization:
a) Comparable information for monitoring the biological
development of the Mediterranean environment;
b) Reports, publications and information of a scientific,
administrative and legal nature, in particular:
- On the measures taken by the Parties in pursuance of this
Protocol for the protection of the protected areas;
- On the species present in the protected areas;
- On any threats to those areas, especially those which may
come from sources of pollution outside their control.
2. The Parties shall designate persons responsible for
protected areas. Those persons shall meet at least once every two
years to discuss matters of joint interest and especially to
propose recommendations concerning scientific, administrative and
legal information as well as the standardization and processing of
data.
Article 15
1. The Parties shall, directly or with the assistance of
competent regional or other international organizations or
bilaterally, co-operate, on the entry into force of this Protocol,
in formulating and implementing programmes of mutual assistance
and of assistance to those developing countries which express a
need for it in the selection, establishment and management of
protected areas.
2. The programmes contemplated in the preceding paragraph
should relate, in particular, to the training of scientific and
technical personnel, scientific research, and the acquisition,
utilization and production by those countries of appropriate
equipment on advantageous terms to be agreed among the Parties
concerned.
Article 16
Changes in the delimitation or legal status of a protected
area or the suppression of all or part of such an area may not
take place except under a similar procedure to that followed for
its establishment.
Article 17
1. The ordinary meetings of the Parties to this Protocol shall
be held in conjunction with the ordinary meetings of the
Contracting Parties to the Convention held pursuant to article 14
of the Convention. The Parties may also hold extraordinary
meetings in conformity with that article.
2. It shall be the function of the meetings of the Parties to
this Protocol, in particular:
a) To keep under review the implementation of this Protocol;
b) To consider the efficacy of the measures adopted, having
regard in particular to the area to which the Protocol applies,
and to examine the need for other measures, in particular in the
form of annexes, or for envisaging, if necessary, an alteration to
that area, in conformity with the provisions of article 16 of the
Convention;
c) To adopt, review and amend as required any annex to this
Protocol;
d) To monitor the establishment and development of the network
of protected areas provided by article 12, and to adopt guidelines
to facilitate the establishment and development of that system and
to increase co-operation among the Parties;
e) To consider the recommendations made by the meetings of the
persons responsible for the protected areas, as provided by
article 14, paragraph 2;
f) To consider reports transmitted by the Parties to the
Organization under article 20 of the Convention and any other
information which the Parties may transmit to the Organization or
to the meeting of the Parties.
Article 18
1. The provisions of the Convention relating to any protocol
shall apply with respect to the present Protocol.
2. The rules of procedure and the financial rules adopted
pursuant to article 18, paragraph 2, of the Convention shall apply
with respect to this Protocol, unless the Parties to this Protocol
agree otherwise.
3. This Protocol shall be open for signature, at Geneva on 3
and 4 April 1982, and at Madrid from 5 April 1982 to 2 April 1983
by any Contracting Party to the Convention and any State invited
to the Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Protocol concerning
Mediterranean Specially Protected Areas held at Geneva on 2 and 3
April 1982. It shall also be open for signature from 5 April 1982
to 2 April 1983 by any regional economic grouping of which at
least one member is a coastal State of the Mediterranean Sea Area
and which exercises competence in fields covered by this Protocol.
4. This Protocol shall be subject to ratification, acceptance
or approval. Instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval
shall be deposited with the Government of Spain, which will assume
the functions of Depositary.
5. As from 3 April 1983, this Protocol shall be open for
accession by the Contracting Parties to the Convention and by any
State or grouping referred to in paragraph 3.
6. This Protocol shall enter into force on the thirtieth day
following the deposit of at least six instruments of ratification,
acceptance or approval of, or accession to, the Protocol.
In witness whereof the undersigned, being duly authorized,
have signed this Protocol.
Done at Geneva on this third day of April one thousand nine
hundred and eighty-two in a single copy in the Arabic, English,
French and Spanish languages, the four texts being equally
authoritative.
(Follow the signatures)
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