2015 Coast Day at the door

Another year has flown by and the time has come to celebrate the Mediterranean Coast Day. This year, it will be a little different than usually. The central regional celebration will last two days instead of one. Namely, the host this year is France, more precisely the “Conservatoire du littoral” which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Anniversaries of several other organizations involved in coastal conservation also fall this year, namely fifty years of the National Trust programme "Neptune", forty years of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP), thirty years of the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA), twenty years of the French GEF and the Tunisian Coastal Protection Agency, ten years of the PIM Initiative for Mediterranean Small Islands, and, finally, the launching of the Coastal Agency of Montenegro.

They have, thus, decided to combine these anniversaries with the Mediterranean Coast Day celebration by organising a Meeting of Coastal Agencies from Europe and the Mediterranean on September 24th and 25th, to be held in Antibes Juan les Pins and Vallauris (Maritime Alps – France). This event will be organised in partnership with the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MAP, PAP/RAC, the Blue Plan/RAC, the Cities of Antibes Juan les Pins and Vallauris, the Department Council of Maritime Alps, the French Development Agency, the French Water Agency RMC, and the French GEF. The meeting is primarily intended for the Mediterranean and European stakeholders involved in the protection of coastal areas, namely: governments, local authorities, coastal management agencies, NGOs and specialised networks. It will be the opportunity to interact, through plenary sessions, workshops and roundtables on major issues such as climate change, naturalness, coastal planning, and partnership issues dealing with management of coastal areas.

In parallel, the French Development Agency and the Blue Plan organise, on September 24, in Antibes a regional workshop on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in the Mediterranean. The workshop aims to discuss the ICZM-related objectives of the FDA/Blue Plan partnership, including (i) the integration of social and environmental issues within the management process engaged on coastal areas, and (ii) the implementation of strategic recommendations proposed in the frame of a balanced development of these territories.

Apart from this central regional celebration, we have announcements of several local events: in Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Tunisia.

For more detail, see the Coast Day website.