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48 | THE BLUE ECONOMY AND FINANCE

INVESTMENT FUND
An environmental fund

financing Mediterranean

MPAs

Launch of “Build back a blue and stronger Mediterranean”, an integrated global

project to manage the Mediterranean’s Marine Protected Areas, which have
been made vulnerable by multiple factors.

In recent decades, we have witnessed an escalation A UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP
in the general decline of marine and coastal environ-
ments in the Mediterranean. Although many marine New prospects are emerging for Mediterranean Ma-
protected areas (MPA) have been created in the Me- rine Protected Areas, notably in the South and East
diterranean (around 7% of the sea), the majority do regions. The chair of MedPAN, the Spanish biologist
not offer effective marine conservation. Puri Canals, offered an overview of the project: “The
cooperation model which we are developing today is
relevant for Mediterranean partners and can be re-
THE NEW GEF PROJECT produced in other maritime regions. This is the best
model to be able to achieve the targets set by the
To address these shortcomings, the MedFund, an international community for 2030”. Christian Severin,
environmental fund for Mediterranean MPAs deve- Coordinator of the GEF’s International Waters depart-
loped by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, ment, presented the ambitions for the next five years:
and MedPAN, a network of Mediterranean MPA encouraging cooperation in the Mediterranean and
managers, devised an ambitious project funded by beyond to achieve international objectives to create
the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which was and manage MPAs, which have been made more
launched during Monaco Ocean Week, during the di- vulnerable as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
gital meeting on 24 March 2021. In his introduction,
the chair of MedFund, special adviser to HSH Prince
Albert II of Monaco, H.E. Mr Bernard Fautrier, recalled THE FIRST SIX BENEFICIARY
the creation of MedFund, an initiative supported by COUNTRIES
Monaco, France and Tunisia, which aims to support
around twenty MPA’s in the Mediterranean by 2025. Albania, Algeria, Lebanon, Montenegro, Morocco
The GEF’s substantial financing will help scale up and and Tunisia then announced their contributions and
allow long-term action to support the Mediterranean. expectations. Access to sustainable finance solu-
tions to cover the costs of managing these MPAs and
technical, organisational, strategic and institutional
support will contribute to national policies to protect
marine environments. Optimising these conservation
costs should allow the Mediterranean region to of-
fer a strong response to global changes and provide
long-term socio-ecological benefits, including in the
context of post-COVID recovery.