RAMOGE Agreement celebrates 40th anniversary in 2016

Deployment of barriers to prevent pollution during the 2013 RAMOGEPOL exercise off the coast of Bonifacio.©RAMOGE

The RAMOGE Agreement was signed by the Principality of Monaco, France and Italy in 1976. It works to protect and preserve the marine environment. From the outset, it was conceived as a sub-regional implementation of the Barcelona Convention, constituting a pilot marine pollution prevention and control zone.

Forty years later, RAMOGE continues to be a pilot zone and remains unique to the Mediterranean.  

The Agreement has two areas of focus:

• controlling pollution through its operational arm in conjunction with France’s Mediterranean Maritime Prefecture, the Italian Coastguard and the relevant Monegasque authorities;
• preserving biodiversity through its working group which coordinates integrated management activities in coastal areas.

To celebrate the Agreement’s fortieth anniversary, a number of events will be organised throughout 2016:

• Firstly, on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 April 2016, there will be a spotlight on the operational arm, focused on cooperation to combat marine pollution, and a RAMOGEPOL exercise will be organised, simulating an oil spill off the coast of Monaco.

The scenario is based on a fictitious collision between two ships in the waters off the Principality, causing an oil spill. Rice husks will be used to simulate the oil. The RAMOGEPOL plan will then be activated to request aviation resources from the member nations to carry out an operation to treat the spill.

RAMOGEPOL exercises are organised on a regular basis to test the interoperability of French, Italian and Monegasque nautical resources and ensure that it is effective. The exercises also provide an opportunity for a systematic check of the relevance of the RAMOGEPOL plan.

In advance of this exercise, the RAMOGEPOL plan will be amended to take account of the dangers posed to navigation by drifting objects.

• Secondly, on Tuesday 20 September 2016 there will be a focus on the work that the Agreement has done to preserve biodiversity over the last 40 years. A conference at the Oceanographic Museum will present the results of a scientific exploration carried out in summer 2015 in previously unexplored deep-water areas of the three countries of the Agreement.

The RAMOGE Agreement, signed in 1976, is a tool for scientific, technical and administrative cooperation between the governments of Monaco, France and Italy to protect and preserve the marine environment in the Provence Alpes Côte-d’Azur region, Liguria and Monaco.

For more information, contact:

RAMOGE Agreement Secretariat
 7 avenue des Papalins

Le Michelangelo
 98000 MONACO
 Tel: + 377 98 98 42 29
 Fax: +377 98 98 40 07

www.ramoge.org

contact@ramoge.org