What are different nations doing to safeguard the marine environment? A number of agreements, or conventions, have been signed by a large number of nations (called the contracting nations) in order to save marine communities for future generations. Such conventions include the following:

Barcelona Convention - Convention for the Protection of The Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution

UNEP – MAP (standing for ‘United Nations Environmental Programme – Mediterranean Action Plan’) and SPABIM(standing for ‘Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean’) – to protect marine biodiversity in the Mediterranean by setting up Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s)

London Convention, to reduce marine pollution through the dumping of wastes and other matter into the sea

UNCLOS – standing for ‘United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea’, which defined the extent of the territorial waters (i.e. the waters belonging to a particular country only – Malta’s territorial waters extend 12km away from the shore), besides laying down guidelines for the exploration of the deep seabed

Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) are increasingly being used as a tool to protect marine biodiversity. Within such areas, human activities would be regulated and monitored so as to cause the least disturbance as possible on marine communities. In the Mediterranean Sea alone, there are over seventy MPA’s to date. An example is the Miramare MPA near Trieste, in Italy, or the Rdum Majjiesa and Filfla MPA’s in Malta.