SPECIAL FEATURE

SPOTLIGHT

First signs of seahorses and pipefishes decline in the Mediterranean

For the first time,14 seahorses, pipefishes, and snipefishes native to the Mediterranean Sea were assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Syngnathids are unique fish species that exhibit male pregnancy and give birth to live young. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species^TM in the Mediterranean, almost 15% of seahorse assessed are listed as Near Threatened, which means that if current trends continue they will be soon threatened with extinction. More than half of these fish species lack enough information to estimate their risk of extinction in the region.Thus, further research is urgently needed to investigate their distribution, population trends, threats and determine if they require any conservation actions.

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2016 Annual Report - IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation

Economic value of ecosystem services in the Ichkeul National Park, Tunisia

Core support to the activities of the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation is provided by the
Junta de Andalucia, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery, Food and Environment and AECID in Spain, and the MAVA Foundation.

Can you differentiate between antelopes of North Africa and the ones of the Arabian Peninsula?

New fact sheet to help conserve antelope species that occur naturally in North Africa and Arabia in order to preserve their genetic integrity and keep them apart. Throughout time, antelopes have adapted to the most extreme desert environments in the world (...)

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How to guide the implementation of nature-based solutions in climate policies

In order to promote biodiversity in the implementation of nature-based solutions in climate policies, five recommendations were made to guide the implementation of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in (...)

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Launch of the Great Bustard conservation strategy in Morocco

On February 7th, the High Commission for Water and Forests and the Fight against Desertification (HCEFLCD), in partnership with GREPOM/BirdLife Morocco and the German Cooperation, celebrated World Wetlands Day in Tangier. An event in which IUCN-Med and the Rabat Scientific (...)

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Strengthening Civil Society Organizations in Morocco and Tunisia in monitoring projects

Within the framework of the PPI-OSCAN project, and in order to continue the process of capacity building of the beneficiary associations in the North African countries involved, the IUCN Center for Mediterranean Cooperation organized two training sessions in March on project monitoring and evaluation.

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Moving forward the Red List of Ecosystems and the Important Plants Areas in Lebanon

A workshop on the Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) was organized for the first time in Lebanon on January 20th, 2017. The aim of this meeting was to provide a short training on the RLE methodology and to evaluate the feasibility to conduct a Red List of forest ecosystems assessment in Lebanon in collaboration with the Ministry of (...)

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Mainstreaming biodiversity in Mediterranean Forest Management

The 5th Mediterranean Forest week took place in Agadir (Morocco), from March 20-24th, 2017. This forum, held every two years, is a major event featuring Mediterranean forests that brought the focus on the restoration of Mediterranean forests and landscapes. It gathered forest administrations, scientific (...)

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First meeting for the identification of vulnerable marine ecosystems of the Mediterranean

Experts examined how to protect cold-water corals, sponges, seamounts and submarine canyons and their interaction with deep-sea fishing. Malaga hosted a meeting of the experts group for the identification of vulnerable marine ecosystems (...)

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DestiMED: a project to foster sustainable tourism across the Mediterranean

The Interreg project "DestiMED" was officially launched in Rome in January. The inaugural address was given by the regional director of the environment and natural system department of the Lazio Region, Vito Consoli, to the seven project partners.

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Launch of two new websites for the PPI-OSCAN and the IPAMed projects

Check out our new web pages for the Small Scale Initiatives for Civil Society Organisations in North Africa (PPI-OSCAN) project of the North Africa Programme and the project Conserving wild plants and habitats for people across the (...)

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Towards a strategy for the conservation of birds of prey in Morocco

The HCEFLCD and the GREPOM / BirdLife Morocco in collaboration with IUCN-Med organized, from April 19th to 20th 2017, a workshop for the elaboration of a strategy for the conservation of birds of prey in Morocco.

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A PPI-OSCAN project awarded by the Lalla Hasnaa Trophies of sustainable coastline

The Khenifiss National Park Associative Network won the Lalla Hasnaa Trophy of sustainable coastline on March 6th, 2017, at the Palais des Congrès of Skhirat, Morocco.

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News Factsheets on key achievements of the North Africa Programme 2013-2016

To mark the launch of the New IUCN North Africa Programme: 2017-2020, we produced informative fact sheets containing the main initiatives, achievements and publications of the North Africa Programme 2013-2016.

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Events

17th Annual meeting of the Sahelo-Saharan Interest Group - Saint Louis, Senegal, 3-7 May. IUCN-Med will participate in this meeting with a presentation about the study's results on raptor electrocution in Morocco.

PPI-OSCAN Regional meeting - Tunis, 9-11 May.

Biodiversity Day in Tunisia - Tunis, 22 May.
Key theme: National Red Lists in North African countries.

Convention on Migratory Species - 2nd meeting of the Intergovernmental Task Force on Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean - Sliema, Malta, 22-23 May.

World Environmental Day, 5th June.
IUCN-Med will organise activities in collaboration with the Malaga Council.

10th World Sponge Conference - Galway, Ireland, 25-30 June.
IUCN-Med will organise a side-event on "To set the scene for the development of a Red List assessment for Mediterranean sponges".

Training event for DestiMED protected areas - Malaga, Spain, 27 & 28 June.
Event hosted by IUCN-Med

Events

In the press