Background

 

Cap De Creus, A specially protected area in the Mediterranean

The Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme endorsed the regional approach to controlling marine pollution several times before UNEP brought together a task force of scientists and officials to shape a Plan of Action for the Mediterranean, adopted in its final form in Barcelona in February 1975.

Since then, 13 regional Action Plans have been established under the UNEP auspecies: the Black sea, East Asian Seas, Eastern Africa, the ROPME Sea Area, Mediterranean, North-East Pacific, Northwest Pacific, Red Sea & Gulf of Aden, South Asian Seas, Pacific, South-East Pacific, Western Africa and Wider Caribbean.

Similar independent agreements are in place in the Antarctic, Arctic, Baltic, Caspian and North-East Atlantic.