On January 25, a meeting to launch the national ICZM strategy for Algeria and the Réghaia coastal plan was held at the premises of the Algerian Ministry of Land-use Planning and Environment (MATE) in Algiers. The meeting, which was organized by MATE with support of PAP/RAC and UNESCO-HIP, was attended by more than 50 participants including representatives of national, regional and local authorities, as well as representatives of national associations and organizations concerned with the Algerian coastal zone.
The presentations were followed by a vivid discussion where all stakeholders expressed their point of view on the problems and issues they considered as priorities. The participants mentioned several times the problems identified in Réghaia, which were then assessed as being relevant for the totality of the Algerian coastal zone, expressing their interest in starting from a pilot project covering a restricted perimeter to extrapolate on a wide zone which is the one of the Strategy. Although several projects had been realized in the coastal zone of Réghaia in the last years, it came out from the discussion that the site was not yet treated as its fragility required.
Besides this meeting, an operational meeting was organised with representatives of the teams of the two activities. Sectoral consultants were identified, the road map was agreed and the role of the partners defined. Finally, it was decided that the teams of the Plan and the Strategy meet every Thursday in order to secure integration all along the process.
