NEWSLETTER R A C / S P A

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1 NEWSLETTER R A C / S P A 2013 / Issue 4 RAC/SPA The Marine Protected Areas and Biodiversity Centre in the Mediterranean In this issue: New MedOpenSeas brochure published Developing a Marine Protected Area network in Mediterranean open sea areas, including deep sea areas Consultation meeting Identification of sites for MPAs in the open seas, including the deep seas Tyre Coast Nature Reserve (Lebanon) Training session on setup of a rescue centre for marine turtles Kuriat Islands (Tunisia) Monitoring of marine turtles nesting (2013 Compaign) North-eastern Sardinia Study on the cetaceans in the area COP 18 (Istanbul - Turkey) Four decisions with regard to RAC/SPA field of intervention adopted P1 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Louis Marie Preau

2 1 New MedOpenSeas brochure published Developing a Marine Protected Area network in Mediterranean open sea areas, including deep sea areas Juan Cuetos Salvador Garcia Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA) Boulevard du Leader Yasser Arafat - B.P Tunis Cedex - TUNISIA Tel. : / 485 / Fax: / car-asp@rac-spa.org Juan Cuetos Développement d'un réseau d' Aires Marines Protégées dans les zones de mer ouverte en Méditerranée, y compris les eaux profondes Developing a Marine Protected Area network in Mediterranean open sea areas, including deep sea areas CAR/ASP In this brochure, RAC/SPA has made a presentation on the pelagic ecosystems which are key areas for resource production and the biodiversity sanctuaries that are the deep sea areas and it has explained the commitments that have already been made by the international community in this subject to prepare a regional framework for the conservation of biodiversity in order to set up SPAMIs in the Open seas of the Mediterranean OCEANA On the basis of the lessons learned from the implementation of the SPAMIs in Open Seas project s second phase, and upon consultation with the project Steering Committee at its third meeting (December 16, Tunis, Tunisia), the third phase of the project aims to contributing to build a framework with the countries and competent organizations to facilitate the joint establishment of SPAMIs in open seas, including the deep seas. Within this project, a new Brochure has been edited and printed by RAC/SPA. This brochure dealing with the development of a network of MPAs and SPAMIs in Mediterranean open sea including deep sea areas is a part of a full kit of technical and legal reports that have been already published. Consultation meeting Identification of sites for MPAs in the open seas, including the deep seas The Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC-SPA) organized a consultation meeting with representatives from the neighbouring countries of the Alboran Sea on December 2013 to set up or re-launch multilateral working groups to identify sites and establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Alboran open seas, including the deep seas. The meeting was in close collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature through its Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (IUCN-Med) and held at their premises in Malaga, Spain. Juan A Caminas

3 Tyre Coast Nature Reserve (Lebanon) Training session on setup of a rescue centre for marine turtles The future of Mediterranean Marine Turtles, charismatic marine reptiles, depends mainly on the protection of their nesting sites and in particular in the eastern part of the Mediterranean. In this part of the basin, The Tyre Coast Nature Reserve (TCNR), located south of the Tyre town (Lebanon) is an important nesting and feeding site for the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and the green turtle (Chelonia mydas). Within the implementation of the Action Plan for the conservation of Mediterranean marine turtles, and in order to define the migratory routes of marine turtles, an experience of satellite tracking of marine turtles has been carried out on July 2012 in the reserve thanks to the collaboration between the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/ SPA), the Stazione Zoologica «Anton Dohrn» Naples (Italy), the Lebanese Ministry of Environment and the Municipality of Tyre. 2 2 Lobna Ben Nakhla Lobna Ben Nakhla This year, and from 2 to 5 December 2013, a training on the setting up of a rescue centre has been organized at the reserve premises, provided by Mrs. Flegra BENTIVEGNA, a marine turtles expert, in framework of strengthening the monitoring and the study efforts of marine turtles in the Tyre Coast Nature Reserve. This training has been followed by the reserve s staff, Civil Protection, National Guards and other volunteers from the Red Cross. Some PhD searchers of the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) and its director took also part at this training. The rescue centre will host marine turtles that require care and release them back to the natural environment when they become enough healthy. TCNR Lobna Ben Nakhla

4 3 Kuriat islands (Tunisia) Monitoring of marine turtles nesting (2013 Compaign) Imed Jribi As each year, since 1997, and within the implementation of the Action Plan for the conservation of Mediterranean marine turtles, the Tunisian National Institute for marine sciences and technology (INSTM) with the collaboration and the support of the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA), the Agency for Coastal Protection and Management (APAL) and the Faculty of sciences of Sfax (FSS) has undertook, on 2013 (July and August), the monitoring of marine turtles nesting on the Kuriat islands (Tunisia). The Kuriat Islands are two small earth emergences, with 2km of distance between them, located at the East-North-east of the Monastir Cap (Tunisia). These two islets are unoccupied, but frequently visited by tourists. They are characterized by a smooth and low morphology with many low-pressure zones. For this year, the monitoring was an opportunity to principally: Raise awareness on the biology, nesting and ecology of the Caretta caretta marine Turtle Protect the nesting beaches on the Kuriat Islands by surveillance of the nests, during the summer season, to protect them from fisherman and visitors and by insuring a great success to the nesting females climb and the emergence of the new births. Tag nesting females. Train Tunisian and foreign students. This monitoring helped participants to study marine turtles nesting in the Islands coasts. In fact, 9 nests has been found in the small Kuriat in 2013, whereas in the Big Kuriat, 20 tracks of caouane turtles has been found with 13 nests. The report of this compaign can be requested directly from RAC/SPA. Small Kuriat Big Kuriat Nesting frequence (nest numbers) by year

5 North-eastern Sardinia Study on the cetaceans in the area 4 "The cetaceans of the north-eastern Sardinia, a fundamental bio-resource of the National Park Archipelago of La Maddalena and the International Marine Park of Bonifacio Strait (PMIBB)" is a study realized by DIPNET (Dipartimento di Zoologia e Genetica Evoluzionistica, Università di Sassari) in collaboration with CIMA research Foundation and RAC/ SPA. It aimed to evaluate the presence of cetaceans belonging to the pelagic realm off the PMIBB (which includes the Italian MPA "National Park of the Archipelago of La Maddalena" and the French MPA "Natural Reserve of Bonifacio Strait"), just outside its eastern section, and it was made on three parts. The first part of the study has given an overview of the scientific work undertaken in pelagic waters in the study area and has highlighted three important aspects: the presence of fin whales, striped dolphins and Risso s dolphins in the western PMIBB, the abundance of cetaceans in the South of the study area (between Olbia, Sardinia, Civitavecchia, Italy mainland), the regular presence of Cuvier s beaked whales in the East of PMIBB. CIMA Research Foundation The second part of the study has collected a list of the sightings made by third parties between 2007 and The information obtained were used to quantify the encounter rate of cetaceans in the study area: 7.05 observations 100 km (by species: ERSc=4,53 obs/100km, ERPm=1,17 obs/100km, ERBp=0,84 obs/100km, ERZc=0,34 obs/100km, ERGg=0,17 obs/100km). The third part of the study aimed to collect new data following a sampling strategy adapted to the main objective of the project and to analyse it. Ten one-day surveys were conducted from August 2011 to March 2012 during which it was possible to travel 623 kilometres on-effort (totalling 38.6 hours of navigation on-effort) and to observe 65 groups or single individuals of cetaceans. The overall Encounter Rate (ER) was 10.4 observations on 100 km and results confirmed that the South East area off the PMIBB is very favourable to the observation of four pelagic species: striped dolphin, fin whale, Risso s dolphin and Cuvier s beaked whale. The report of this study can be requested directly from RAC/SPA. CIMA Research Foundation

6 5 COP 18 (Istanbul - Turkey) : Four decisions with regard to RAC/SPA field of intervention adopted During their 18th Ordinary Meeting held in Istanbul (Turkey) on December 3 rd -6 th 2013, the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols adopted many thematic decisions about the protection of the Mediterranean environment. The following decisions with regard to RAC/SPA field of intervention and the SPA/BD Protocol have been adopted among the whole: Decision IG 21/3: Regarding the on the Ecosystems Approach including adopting definitions of Good Environmental Status (GES) and targets; Souha El Asmi Decision IG.21/4: Related to the Action Plans under the SPA/BD Protocol Regional strategy for the conservation of Monk Seals in the Mediterranean ( ); Work Programme and Implementation Timetable of the Action Plan for the conservation of Mediterranean Marine Turtles in the Mediterranean Sea for the period ; Work Programme and Implementation Timetable of the Action Plan for the conservation of Bird species listed in Annex II to the SPA/BD Protocol in the Mediterranean for the period ; Work Programme and Implementation Timetable of the Action Plan for the conservation of Cartilaginous Fishes in the Mediterranean Sea for the period ; Action Plan for the conservation of Habitats and Species associated with seamounts, underwater caves and canyons, aphotic engineering benthic invertebrates and chemo-synthetic phenomena, in the Mediterranean Sea (Dark Habitats Action Plan); Decision IG.21/5: Regarding the identification and conservation of sites of particular ecological interest in the Mediterranean Developing a coherent and well-managed network of coastal and marine protected areas in the Mediterranean while increasing the number of those areas in the SPAMI list; Including the Lara-Toxeftra Turtle Reserve (Cyprus) in the SPAMI List; Carrying out during the biennium the Ordinary Periodic Review for twenty-two SPAMIs, according to the procedure adopted by the Contracting Parties;

7 Preparing with the Contracting Parties and relevant stakeholders a draft roadmap for a comprehensive 6 coherent network of well managed MPAS to achieve Aichi 11 target in the Mediterranean for consideration by COP19 with a view of its adoption. Cooperating with the CBD Secretariat in organizing during 2014 a regional workshop in the Mediterranean on EBSAs, in time for its report to be considered by the 18th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (June 2014) prior to the twelfth meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties Decision IG.21/6: Regarding the Amendments of the Annexes II and III to the Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean. 11 species of deep-sea corals (CNIDARIA) have been added to the Annex II: Antipathella subpinnata (Ellis & Solander, 1786) Antipathes dichotoma (Pallas, 1766) Antipathes fragilis (Gravier, 1918) Leiopathes glaberrima (Esper, 1792) Parantipathes larix (Esper, 1790) Callogorgia verticillata (Pallas, 1766) Cladocora caespitosa (Linnaeus, 1767) Cladocora debilis (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1849) Ellisella paraplexauroides (Stiasny, 1936) Lophelia pertusa (Linnaeus, 1758) Madrepora oculata (Linnaeus, 1758) This inclusion is a big acquirement for the protection of deepsea species and convince the Mediterranean countries that this is an urgent requirement. During this COP, RAC/SPA has also had the opportunity to coorganise, with MedPAN network, a side event on Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas Roadmap to 2020 on December 4 th where the Roadmap to achieve in 2020 the international goals of the CBD in terms of conservation and management of marine and coastal areas that came from the 2012 MPA Forum (Antalya, Turkey). Souha El Asmi

8 Dear readers, Another year is coming to an end and it is with great satisfaction that RAC/SPA team takes this opportunity to wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR The RAC/SPA Team. United Nations Environment Programme / Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA) Boulevard du Leader Yasser Arafat B.P Tunis Cedex - TUNISIA Tel.: (+216) / 485 Fax: (+216) car-asp@rac-spa.org Web: R A C / S P A