The Director’s message

This activity report represents both the crossing over a double frontier and the start of a new period marked by the evolution of the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation programme of work and the way to function.

2012 has meant the wrap up of the IUCN 2009-2012 global programme, with the achievement of more than 70% of our expected results and the implementation of some 30 projects in the Mediterranean. It has also implied the development and transition into the one single IUCN Programme 2013-2016, adopted by the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju in September 2012, coinciding with the deployment y of a renewed subregional programme for North Africa.

The three IUCN Programme Areas: VALUING AND CONSERVING NATURE; EFFECTIVE AND EQUITABLE GOVERNANCE OF NATURE´S USE; and DEPLOYING NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE, FOOD AND DEVELOPMENT, offer the framework for the support that IUCN-Med is providing to the development of essential knowledge products for the Mediterranean related to the Red List of Ecosystems; the Red List of Threatened Species; Key Biodiversity Areas; the World Protected Areas Database; Human Dependency on Nature, and, overlapping them all, a Framework for the Governance of Natural Resources.

The Year 2013 witnessed the consolidation of a change in the internal model in accordance with those taking place at global level. A period of reflection, readjustment and changes influenced by the consequences of a new operational scenario marked by a strong economic crisis and the political changes happening in Mediterranean countries, have conditioned the functionality of the Centre and the implementation of the IUCN Programme in the Mediterranean.

This situation has forced new strategic and financial dynamics to ensure the efficient development of the initiatives and projects, together with the fulfillment of IUCN´s existing engagements in the Mediterranean Programme and in North Africa. The reorientation in the functioning of the Centre responds not only to an effort to maximize efficiency in the necessary austerity, but also to the strengthening of the implementation and impact of the IUCN Programme, by reinforcing more efficiently the roles, capacities and particular features of the various Union constituencies: our Members, Commissions, National Committees and the Secretariat.

During these two years the institutional relations have been tightened concerning governance issues in the region, increasing the cooperation level with international organizations such as the Barcelona Convention or the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean: with new partners such as the Union for the Maghreb Arab and collaborators such as the Union for the Mediterranean. A high emphasis has been placed on reinforcing interaction with IUCN Members in North African countries, intensifying the links with IUCN National Committees in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia and re-establishing contacts with Libya and Egypt, following the surge of the “Arab Spring”.

Keen to keep moving forward towards the preservation of the Mediterranean, we are grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Environment, the Regional government for the Environment and Land Use of the Junta de Andalucía and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development, for maintaining their support to the Centre, despite the difficult budgetary situation resulting from the present recession. In this delicate situation, the financial and institutional support from the MAVA Foundation, the French Global Environment Facility and the European Commission, have been crucial for the Centre to keep pursuing the objectives of the 2013-2016 IUCN Programme in the Mediterranean.