The two institutions formalize their first cooperation agreement, with the purpose of improving the quality of environmental information in the Mediterranean.

Within the framework of the partnership between the Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN-Med) and EFE Agency, the two organizations took the initiative to prepare a meeting of environmental journalists from press agencies in the Mediterranean region. The announcement of this partnership coincides with the World Day to Combat Desertification, which is a major environmental threat to Mediterranean countries. This event is observed every year on June 17th, and is an occasion for the United Nations to raise worldwide awareness on this important environmental issue.

This is the first formal cooperation agreement between the two organizations and aims to establish a framework for the development of initiatives that will help improve environmental information quality in the Mediterranean.

Based in Malaga, IUCN-Med was founded in 2001 under an agreement signed between the government of Andalusia, the Spanish Ministry of Environment and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.

Its activities focus on nature conservation, sustainable management of natural resources, promoting cooperation among Mediterranean countries and and among international agreements in the region, with the objective to contribute to the mission and vision of IUCN, an international organization composed of, among others, NGOs, governments and scientific institutions.

As part of the agreement, one of the first initiatives will be to organize, towards the end of 2015, the first environmental journalism forum of Mediterranean press agencies, and this, in order to strengthen and deepen cooperation between press agencies and intergovernmental organizations involved in natural resource conservation and sustainable development in the region.

According to IUCN-Med's director, Antonio Troya, the meeting aims to be "the embryo of a future alliance of environmental agencies of the Mediterranean".

We are convinced of the importance of journalism and environmental information as key element to raise public awareness and that is why we want to create channels to promote knowledge and experience transfer, an area in which EFE, through its platform EFEverde, is a leader, said Troya.

Photo: © EFE - Cooperation agreement between IUCN and EFE.