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The environment ministers of 14 countries agreed in principle last month to ban the construction of residential and commercial developments within 100 meters of the Mediterranean coastline.

The ministers met in Almeria, Spain to ratify the new Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) agreement, part of the Barcelona Convention – a set of protocols established in 1976 designed to reduce pollution on the Mediterranean. The convention, which meets twice yearly around Europe and North Africa, agreed that along the entire 29,000 mile shoreline of the Mediterranean, no construction would be permitted within 100 metres of the coast in an effort to help protect the coastline from the damage caused by development and human contact.

“This is a pioneering Protocol and it constitutes an added value for the Barcelona Convention and the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP),” said Paul Mifsud, MAP co-ordinator for the United Nations Environment Programme. “It is the first time that ICZM is full addressed by a legally-binding international instrument. We are confident that with such strong support from the Contracting Parties, the protocol on coastal zone management will enter force soon.”

Spain’s minister for the environment Cristina Narbona and José Fernández Pérez, the environment ministry’s director of coastal areas told a press conference that the nations of Albania, Algeria, Croatia, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Slovenia, Syria, and Tunisia have all ratified the Barcelona Convention, while Turkey, Lebanon, Libya, Cyprus, Bosnia, and Egypt have refrained at this stage, however they are believed to be signing the agreement later this year.

Spain has already acted upon the Barcelona Convention by demolishing over 600 properties along the Costa del Sol under its 20-year old Ley de Costa law. Narbona admits that although the delegates at the meeting have talked the talk, enforcing it is another matter.

“I know from our experience in Spain that compliance is the problem,” she said. “Every single one of the provisions agreed to in Almería already exists under Spanish law; but there just hasn’t been the sufficient will or awareness to enforce them. To address that challenge, the Almería protocol has created a committee to ensure that the convention’s provisions are carried out,” she added.

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