The Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) was the first UNEP initiative to be developed under the Regional Seas Programme. MAP was approved in 1975 (revised in 1995) and became the model for other seas across the globe. To address the issue of marine litter, UNEP/MAP was the first Regional Sea Programme to approve a legally-binding Regional Plan on Marine Litter Management in December 2013, providing a set of programmes of measures and implementation timetables to prevent and reduce the adverse effects of marine litter on the marine and coastal environment. It includes innovative and traditional measures of a policy, regulatory (including incentive economic instruments) and technical nature, addressing different aspects of marine litter prevention and management from land and sea-based sources. The Regional Plan measures impose clear obligations regarding the waste management hierarchy, closure of illegal dumping/dumpsites, shift to sustainable consumption and production patterns, removal of existing marine litter using environmental sound practices such as fishing for litter, clean up campaigns, port reception facilities at possibly no special fees, and monitoring, assessment and reporting on implementation of measures as well as enforcement of national legislation. In December 2019, during the 21st Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, UNEP/MAP launched and presented the Mediterranean Marine Litter Node. READ MORE
