1. Kune Vain Lagoons (Albania)
2. Béni Bélaïd (Algeria)
3. Neretva Delta (Croatia)
4. Marja Zerga (Morocco)
5. Sebkhat El kalbia (Tunisia)

ECAT, Albania

DGF, Algiers

Ministry of Environment, Croatia

Haut Commissariat aux Eaux et Forets, Morocco

DGF, Tunis

Primary Objective

Secondary

Objectives

Site Management Objectives

Application of the tools developed in MedWet1 in 5 non-EU countries of the East and South of the Mediterranean region (Albania, Algeria, Croatia, Morocco & Tunisia).

To review the economic uses of Mediterranean wetland resources, while focusing on the five participating countries, which must present a complete set of data.

To analyse the impact of these activities on the ecological functions of the Mediterranean wetlands.

To propose guidelines for sustainable economic activity management in the Mediterranean wetlands.

To quantify the value of other Mediterranean wetland functions that may not be directly related to productive activities, such as aquifer recharge, flow control, shore stabilization.

To present exhaustively the social aspects of the relation between wetlands and their communities. The work was focused in the Mediterranean basin and specifically in the five participating sites that were used as case studies.

Some study objectives were partially achieved, mainly due to difficulty in accessing the information and statistical data and because of the newly introduced concept of economic environmental valuation, in the majority of the pilot sites of the project. As it was argued, the means of some of the partner countries make it hard to attain sufficiently reliable results to allow for comparisons and analyses of a more general scope.

• Funding, preparation and organisation of a program of field workshops on the subject of ‘implementation of environmental economic valuation methods’. These workshops should also target a wider range of audience (stakeholder partners, decision makers, investors, technicians, local authorities, etc.)
• Creation of a website dedicated to the socioeconomic aspects, compiling and coordinating the research on the subject.
• Examine the possibilities of instituting an Observatory of the Mediterranean socioeconomic aspects related to the development and conservation of wetlands.
• Organise training workshops on the subject of physical planning and GIS implementation related to wetlands.
• Request the governments to facilitate the access to the cartography documents.
• Organise workshops on systematic management approach in coordination with the technical partners.
• Request the central agencies to integrate socioeconomic specialists and land-planners in the process of elaborating wetland management plans.
• Disseminate to the central partner agencies the circular information process that was launched during the MedWet2 project. Circulate it to a wider audience.