The campaign was presented in Almeria, Spain by the three NGOS, Clean-Up Greece, the Hellenic Marine Environment Protection Association - HELMEPA and the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE), and MED POL, the Mediterranean Pollution Assessment and Control Programme of UNEP/MAP. The event took place in the framework of the 15th Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean and its Protocols (Almeria, 15-18 January 2008)

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The “vehicles” of the campaign so far include a poster/brochure with useful information on marine litter and advice to all major stakeholders in 11 Mediterranean languages and a publication in English entitled “Public Awareness for the Management of Marine Litter in the Mediterranean”.

Almeria Press Release

This Communication was submitted to the 4th Conference of the Water Directors of the Euro-Mediterranean and Southeastern European Countries (10 & 11 December 2007, Bled, Slovenia) and is a joint effort of:
- the Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean (GWP-Med): www.gwpmed.org
- the EC financed project GEWAMED (Mainstreaming Gender Dimensions into Water Resources Development and Management in the Mediterranean Region) www.gewamed.net/index.php and
- the MIO-ECSDE (Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Cultural and Sustainable Development), www.mio-ecsde.org
English
French

The MIO-ECSDE Secretariat, under the guidance of the Chairman Prof. Scoullos fulfilled its mandate from the Executive Bureau to draft the Internal Rules and Regulations of the Federation. It basically describes practices that have developed and have been perfected over the years and also makes a synthesis of decisions that have been taken in recent years by the Executive Bureau and the AGMs. In the process of formulating the text on the basis of the MIO-ECSDE Statutes it became evident that the Statutes themselves needed to be updated. The Secretariat proceeded and proposed amendments (after consulting also with a legal expert) which were sent to the Executive Bureau for comments. Both documents were approved by the 40th Executive Bureau meeting (December 1-2, 2007) and confirmed by the 12th AGM (December 2, 2007).

Internal Rules and Regulations
Amended Statutes

Read the French edition

The 12th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of MIO-ECSDE took place in Cairo, Egypt at the Intercontinental Pyramids Park Resort, on 2 December 2007.

The AGM was held back-to-back with the Training of Arab Journalists on the Challenge of Climate Change (1-2 December 2007) organised by the Arab NGO Network for Environment and Development (RAED) with the support of UNDP and the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE) and the Consultation on Sustainable Development in the Arab Communities (3-4 December 2007), organised by RAED with the support of MIO-ECSDE and held under the auspices of H.E the Secretary General of the League, Mr. Amr Moussa. More than 50 people participated in the 12th AGM, thirty four (34) of which were Member organizations from sixteen (16) countries.

Read the French Edition

The Conference on “Horizon 2020” and the Private Investors’ Involvement was organized on 22-23 October 2007, in Athens, by MIO-ECSDE, GWP-Med IME, MedCities and EPE with the support of EC, MED EUWI, UNEP/MAP, GWP and Coca Cola 3E. The Conference discussed aspects of importance for the successful coordination and implementation of the new ‘Horizon 2020’ endeavour, including: key financing needs and main regional financing initiatives in the region; opportunities and ways for investors to get involved in the initiative; private investors’ prerequisites and expectations; and potential synergies between all interested partners (EU, Governments, international and regional organisations, public and private banks, cities, SRI funds, etc.). It was agreed to follow up by creating a regional platform for consultation among the key players involved. It was the first meeting on the subject in the region bringing together institutional partners, representatives of the private sector and NGOs. The Conference was attended by more than 80 participants some of which were MIO-ECSDE Member organisations.Click here for the full report of the meeting.

IN ITALY, TUNISIA, PORTUGAL, EGYPT, & JORDAN
Five training seminars for educators, formal and non formal, took place in October in the framework of the “Mediterranean Food Educational Project”, and namely, in Italy, Tunisia, Portugal, Egypt and Jordan. It is a project for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) led by MIO-ECSDE and cosponsored by the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures (ALF). In the project MIO-ECSDE has been joined by six more partners with the objective to develop an ESD material on “Mediterranean Food”. The material was prepared in order to use the Mediterranean food and related topics -cuisine, diet, basic products, etc- as a vehicle for stimulating Intercultural Dialogue and facilitating ESD, exploring in a comprehensive way the linkages between cultural and biological diversity in the Mediterranean, the interrelationships between human productive activities, cultures, environment and natural resources. The material will be produced in English, Arabic, Greek, Italian and Portuguese.

If you are an environmental NGO which operates in one or more of the EU’s Mediterranean Partner countries, you are urged to respond to an important capacity building questionnaire, which has been designed on behalf of the European Commission.

The findings of the questionnaire will be used to inform the design of future training programmes and other capacity building measures for environmental NGOs that may be supported by the EC. The data will also be used to identify how NGOs in the region can contribute to the ‘Horizon 2020’ initiative, which aims to depollute the Mediterranean by 2020.

Chios Island- Greece, 28 September - 5 October 2007

The Euro-Mediteranean Workshop “Building our future through the valorization of our cultural and biological diversity” took place in Chios from the 28th September until the 5th of October with the participation of 29 young people linked to Mediterranean NGOs from 11 countries of the Mediterranean. The Programme was organised by MIO-ECSDE and supported by the European Commission-DG Environment, the Prefecture of Chios and NIREUS company. The activities were planned and conducted in close collaboration with Ms Maria Passali, artist, and Dr Helen Maloupa, Director of the Balkan Botanical Garden of Kroussia (BBGK).

We are happy to announce that the publication "Handbook on Methods used in Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development" by M. Scoullos and V. Malotidi (produced already in English and French) has been recently produced also in the Arabic Language and is now available to download at www.medies.net in the 'publications' section of the website. MEdIES e-members should use their username and password to download the publication. (Those who are not MEdIES e-members need first to subscribe to the webpage to get their username and password (it’s free!!).

Please disseminate this announcement to any other Arabic speaking educators that may be interested.

The 1st meeting for the Mediterranean Universities Network for ESD took place on 14 -15 June 2007 in Sarajevo. The meeting was organized by MIO-ECSDE, hosted by REIC and financially supported by UNESCO-BRESCE. The meeting started on the afternoon of the 14th of June, after the opening session - at the Rectorat building of the University of Sarajevo- of the final meeting of the EESD Project developed by UNESCO-BRESCE in partnership with the University of Bologna and REIC. The meeting was attended by representatives from the University of Primorska (Koper, Slovenia), the University of Athens (Greece), the University of Bogazici (Istanbul, Turkey), the Technical University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain), the University of Bologna (Italy), the University of Padova (Italy) and the University of Sarajevo (BiH), as well as representatives of UNESCO-BRESCE, REIC and MIO-ECSDE. Several interested Universities could not be represented (mostly due to examinations period) but their intention to participate was demonstrated.