Article | 25 Nov, 2016

IUCN supports the “MEET Network sustainable tourism journey” during the Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas Forum

The 2016 Forum of Marine Protected Areas is about to start in Tangier (Morocco) from November 28th to December 1st, and will welcome more than four hundred participants who will assess the progress made on marine protected areas (MPAs) across the Mediterranean region in the last years.

Port-Cros National Park (France)

Photo: MedPAN/Marianne Lang

In this framework, the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Centre will organize several activities related to the MEET Network, which is a regional initiative aimed at fostering the coordination, planning and monitoring of sustainable tourism in Mediterranean protected areas.

More than 20 managers from protected areas will benefit from the training workshop organized by IUCN-Med in collaboration with the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, in which the core elements of “Limit of Acceptable Change” methodology, the “Threshold of Sustainability” approach and how to illustrate the integration and application of this approach in their respective areas with real life examples, will be presented.

Photo: IUCN-Med

A second event will be organized in collaboration with the WWF- Mediterranean Programme, which will consist of a workshop for sharing lessons from Mediterranean successes and failures in the integration of tourism activities in MPAs, promoting synergies between MPAs and sustainable tour operators as well as ensuring equitable sharing of the benefits from tourism in MPAs.

Finally, the Annual meeting and the General Assembly of the MEET network have been convened at the 2016 MPA Forum, where the MEET partners and members will be informed about this year's activities and have their say about plans and perspectives for next year's activities planning. IUCN-Med is a member of the MEET network and acts as Secretariat of this initiative.

Photo: Samaria National Park

The MEET’s events at the 2016 MPA forum are:

Tuesday 29^th: MEETing the Threshold of Sustainability for Tourism in Protected Areas (side event)
Wednesday 30^th : MPAs as an effective tool to reach sustainable tourism (forum workshop)
Thursday 1st: MEET Network Partners Annual meeting and MEET Member’s General Assembly)

The MEET Network is an initiative of the former MEET Project (Mediterranean Experience of Ecotourism), a three-year project funded by European Union (ENPI-CBC Mediterranean Programme 2007-2013).

For further information, please contact Carla Danelutti.

LINKS:

MEET Project