RAMOGE colloquium to promote balanced mooring management

Fréquentation estivale de la baie de par les chaines de mouillage – Pampelonne ©ULMflyingsafari

As part of Monaco Ocean Week,* the RAMOGE Agreement is holding a colloquium, entitled “RAMOGE, for balanced mooring management” on Friday 31 March 2017 at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. The event will be attended by the main players in the RAMOGE zone’s yachting industry.

The RAMOGE zone is a highly popular area for tourists and a prime destination for yachts, both large and small. The problems this raises are different along different parts of the coast: in Liguria, the issue is primarily with small craft while along the coasts of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region and Monaco, there are more large yachts. Along these coastlines, visitor numbers are increasing every year, to the extent that in certain mooring areas, too many yachts are posing a threat to the small algal or rock bed ecosystems. In effect, intensive and repeated mooring is damaging particularly fragile habitats such as Neptune grass and coral reef.

Confronted with this challenge, the RAMOGE Agreement decided to bring together the various administrators and users of these zones to talk about their experience and present the tools they use to manage very busy mooring areas with respect for the marine environment.

Using the specific problems faced by coastal areas that will be raised by each state party to the Agreement as a starting point, thanks to contributions from the region of Liguria, the Maritime Prefecture for the Mediterranean and Monaco’s Department of Maritime Affairs, the speakers, particularly those who manage marine protected areas, will share their respective experiences of the marine environment, talking about mooring practices and techniques.

Discussions with the participants will facilitate a better understanding of this issue with a view to eventually guiding mooring and the yachting industry towards sustainable management.

L'îlé de Gallinara ©Regione Liguria

* The first ever Monaco Ocean Week will take place from 30 March to 4 April 2017. It aims to highlight the action Monaco is taking to protect the oceans. The event will bring together key stakeholders in the maritime world, both Monegasque and international, who are working to ensure the sustainability of our oceans. Raising awareness among contemporaries is the objective which Monaco Ocean Week has set itself. Politicians, decision-makers, scientists and economists will debate, reflect and seek the solutions of tomorrow which will save the oceans www.monacooceanweek.org .

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Signed in 1976, the RAMOGE Agreement seeks to protect Mediterranean coastal waters. It forms part of the Barcelona Convention and the resulting Mediterranean Action Plan. Initially, the Agreement covered an area extending from Saint-Raphaël in France to Genoa in Italy, including Monaco. In 1981, this was expanded to stretch from Marseille to La Spezia, to take better account of the administrative boundaries in each nation. As a result, the entire Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur and Liguria regions are included within the Agreement’s perimeter.

The RAMOGE Agreement is a tool which enables the three states party to establish a pilot zone for combatting pollution and preserving the marine environment, within its jurisdiction. It symbolises a new approach to marine conservation and introduces the concept of sub-regional cooperation and solidarity on scientific, technical and legal, as well as administrative, issues. It allows the three nations to decide together what action needs to be taken to promote integrated management of the coast. Everything the Agreement does seeks to improve understanding of the marine and coastal environment, and to ensure its preservation.

Since 1993, the Agreement has also developed an operational aspect, setting up a shared intervention plan for the three countries to combat accidental marine pollution. This is known as the RAMOGEPOL plan. The RAMOGE Agreement also carries out work to raise awareness among users of the sea and the general public to encourage behaviour which respects the marine environment and biodiversity.