International symposium « Resolving the water energy nexus »

8th Annual Meetings of the Co-operation in the Mediterranean

Mohammed Blinda, Programme Officer in Blue Plan, participated on November 28, 2008 at the 8th Annual Meetings of the Co-operation in the Mediterranean. This day was organized by Medcoop, in partnership with the Foundation Sophia Antipolis and the Collective of Solidarity 2000 and aims to better understand the Oudin-Santini’s law and its applications. This promising legal framework authorizes the communes to devote up to 1% their resources “water and sanitation” to cooperation actions with the foreign territorial municipalities and their groupings and to engage in full safety in the decentralized co-operation. This meeting was an occasion to present this law to the communes and to the water operators of the Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur area in order to encourage them to widen their interventions and to participate in the good governance of the Mediterranean.

Conference “the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity”

On the 25th November, Anaï Mangos participated at the conference “the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity”, organized by Iddri in Paris. Pavan Sukhdev, chairman of the Global Market Centre of the Deutsche Bank Group and leader of a research team, presented the preliminary report of this team, supported by the German ministry of environment and the European commission. The methodology and the results presented were discussed by Michel Trometter, Claude Henry and Laurent Mermet. The main issues discussed dealt with methodological aspects and economic indicators. The methodology used for economic assessments of ecosystems or biodiversity should integrate ethical and equitable variables that can illustrate the cultural context of the assessment. The economic analysis should also take in account the importance of the uses of ecosystems in the production, the growth and wealth valuation to help decision making for a sustainable development.

Meeting of the Directors for the Rural Development

On the 20th and 21st of November 2008, as part of the French presidency of the European Union Council, the Meeting of the Directors for the Rural Development took place in Beaunes. As a result from this event, a better coordination is expected between state-members concerning the implementation programs for the rural development, as well as the capitalization of the good practices, and the implementation of a European network of the rural development’s officials. These are as well the same concerns for the Mediterranean countries. Survey and development of all the Mediterranean agricultures, redefinition of the production model in a food crisis and climate change context, modernization of public intervention and adapted governances,  importance of the territorial approaches on the rural development policies’, poverty deciphering, all these are some of the subjects treated during the Bari Workshop, organized with the partnership of CIHEAM, from the 8th to the 10th of May 2008 on the theme “agriculture and sustainable rural development”. The 11 national studies and the 4 regional studies produced within that scope are from now on fully available online both in French and English. These documents contain numerous examples of emerging practices in Northern, Southern and Eastern countries of the Mediterranean, as well as the sustainable rural development indicators on which it was possible to make enquiries about in these countries.

High school of Mines of Paris

Mohammed Blinda, Programme Officer in Blue Plan, participated on November 20, 2008 at the training course of a group of engineers of the high school of Mines of Paris in Sophia Antipolis. This training proceeded within the framework of a module baptized “Trades of Engineer Generalist” (MIG) intended to initiate the engineers just left the preparatory years to reality and the complexity of the engineer job, in his components technical, but so economic, social and environmental. Activity Regional Centre for the environment and sustainable development in the Mediterranean, the Blue Plan was solicited to provide to the engineers elements and information in particular on the currently water needs and its evolutions in the future with a focus on desalination in the Mediterranean.

Round table on sustainable consumption in the Mediterranean

From 5 to 7 November, Patrice Miran for the Blue Plan has made two presentations at the round table organized by the CAR / PP on sustainable consumption in the Mediterranean. The first focused on the development trends and unsustainable consumption patterns in the Mediterranean. The second on carbon finance mechanisms in the region.

Experts meeting "Water use efficiency", Sophia Antipolis, November 5, 2008

Within the framework of the follow-up of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable development (MSSD), the Blue Plan launched in 2008 a work plan on the water use efficiency in the Mediterranean. A series of national studies was carried out so, to further the collection of the basic data needed to calculate the water efficiency index, to provide countries with methodological support for feeding this indicator, to assess what progress has been made by each country in terms water savings and to identify the priority actions to set up. For presenting the results of this work, the Blue Plan organised on Wednesday November 5, 2008, an experts meeting where 8 countries (Bosnia Herzegovina, Cyprus, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey) were represented. <More...>

International conference on biodiversity and agricultures

Florence Pintus for the Blue Plan attended the international conference on biodiversity and agricultures organized on November 4-5th 2008, under the Aegis of the French Presidency of the European Union. The event was organized by the by the French Ministry for Higher Education and Research in cooperation with the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and INRA. The convention on biological diversity introduced the concept of ecosystem services, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment confirmed that changes in ecosystems influence human activities, whose agriculture. Both fields can no more be studied but together and at international scale. Agriculture intensification and homogeneous environment and landscapes are first responsible for biodiversity losses. Two days of thoughts on next European research priorities, in order to help developed and developing countries agricultural systems evolve towards “produce more, produce better”.

Methods calculating emissions of greenhouse gases on a consumption basis

The Blue Plan participated on November 4th to an experts group whose main aim was to assess the relevance of methods calculating emissions of greenhouse gases on a consumption basis. He supported this approach, specifying that it should include in future land-use change, a major source of emissions in the Mediterranean.

“Mediterranean Pipeline” Days, Aix-en-Provence, November 3-5, 2008

Created in France on the initiative of the National Institute for Universe Sciences and bringing together 14 partners, the “Mediterranean Pipeline” intends to a better comprehension and control of the mechanisms influencing the landscape, the environment and the anthropisation of the area. For that, the “Mediterranean Pipeline” aims at coordinating, on a regional scale, the interdisciplinary study and research programmes on the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere. On November 4, 2008, meeting the people in charge for these scientific programs, the Blue Plan was invited to present its step of “cradle of Mediterranean futures” near the decision makers of all the bordering countries. The discussions which followed underlined the reinforcement appropriateness of the partnerships between the scientific organizations and the Blue Plan, in terms of integration and valorization of the observations and the results of research.