#COP24Med | Mediterranean Coastal and Marine Restoration: Bridging Local Practice and Policy for Biodiversity and Climate Resilience

DATE: 3 December 2025, 12:30h to 14:30h
LOCATION: Room “Malachite I and II”, Floor 2, The St. Regis, Cairo
ORGANIZERS: European Topic Center-University of Malaga (ETC-UMA), MedWet and IUCN
CO-ORGANIZERS: Mediterranean Biodiversity Consortium

 

 

About the Side event

Mediterranean marine and coastal ecosystems are among the region’s most valuable natural assets, providing essential services such as climate regulation, water management, biodiversity support, and natural protection against sea-level rise and flooding. In addition to existing human pressures that have led to ecosystem decline, climate projections warn of widespread loss and degradation across coastal habitats, with especially severe impacts expected in vulnerable ecosystems such as wetlands. 

Within this context, policy dialogues are essential to align scientific insights with decision-making processes, fostering collaborative solutions and ensuring that environmental policies are both evidence-based and widely supported. As we move through the decisive years of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the urgency to accelerate and agree on climate adaptation and mitigation measures is greater than ever. 

While restoration has gained prominence in global policy frameworks—such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework—efforts have so far focused predominantly on terrestrial ecosystems, especially forests, leaving marine and coastal ecosystems largely overlooked. This gap is particularly concerning in the Mediterranean region where more than two-third of the population lives in coastal areas, and where protected areas hold special relevance. 

This joint side event aims to table policy recommendations from complementary restoration initiatives such as Wetland4Change, Restore4Cs RESCOM, REST-COAST and the Marine Protected Areas managers network (MedPAN) outlining future priorities for the Mediterranean coastal and marine ecosystems. It will also showcase restoration initiatives, while exploring how wetland and coastal action can be integrated into national and regional policy frameworks.  

This policy dialogue is aiming to assess the urgency of scaling up restoration actions in the coming years, likely becoming a central matter of high-level environmental agendas. The session will also bring the need of a multi-ecosystem approach, recognizing the ecological interconnectedness between coasts and marine habitats, and the need for integrated solutions that strengthen resilience and enhance climate mitigation and adaptation across the broader landscape and seascape. 

By catalyzing collaboration among Contracting Parties, the UNEP/MAP Secretariat, research institutions, and partners, this event aims to ensure that coastal and marine restoration is fully embedded in the implementation of the strategies and actions of the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols, while promoting multi-level connectivity and coordinated approaches to restoration across the Mediterranean basin.

More information:

 

Contacts:

Mar Otero, ETC-UMA
mar_otero@uma.es

Marianne Courouble, MedWet
courouble@medwet.org

Pilar Marín, IUCN
pilar.marin@iucn.org