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IOC Workshop on GOOS Capacity Building for the Mediterranean
Region. |
The GOOS
Capacity Building Workshop for the Mediterranean Region
(jointly supported by IOC, UNEP, the EU and the Government
of Malta was convened in Valletta, Malta, from 26 to
29 November 1997. The purpose of the Workshop was to launch
MedGOOS, draft a memorandum of understanding and inform
the Mediterranean countries about the Global Ocean Observing
System (GOOS), and to identify and discuss capacity building
needs and priorities and development of GOOS in the Mediterranean.
The participants came from various Mediterranean countries
and from international organisations active in the region.
The needs, capability, requirements for observing systems
and training, and general interest in GOOS were identified
for each country.
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Participants
to the GOOS Capacity Building Workshop, 26th-29th
November 1997 - Malta |
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IOC Workshop on the Benefits of the Implementation
of the Global Ocean Observing System in the Mediterranean
region. |
The MedGOOS Workshop
on the "Benefits
of the Implementation of the Global Ocean Observing System
in the Mediterranean Region" was held on 1-3 November
1999 in Rabat, Morocco. This was a first-time highlight
of MedGOOS with a major event in a North African country.
The Workshop brought together more than seventy participants,
including representatives of institutions from 18 Mediterranean
countries, Europe and Africa, as well as from United Nations
agencies and international, governmental and non-governmental
organizations.
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provided a forum to establish the MedGOOS strategy
and obtain consensus at a regional level. The Workshop
also helped to broaden _
the participation in MedGOOS to all Mediterr- anean
countries as well as to bring together scientists
and representatives of the institu-tions involved
in operational oceanography in the Mediterranean
to define priorities, & plan the way forward
with integration of efforts _
and appropriate measures in favour of tech-nology
transfer,cooperation and capacity building elements
to bring capacities in diffe-rent countries at comparable
levels. |
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First
MedGOOS Conference, 1st-3rd November 1999
-- Rabat, Marocco |
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The Workshop also
focussed on raising the level of awareness in the region
on the benefits of implementing MedGOOS, and on the linkages
to the UNCLOS and the UNCED '92 follow-ups in the Mediterranean.
New countries signed the
MedGOOS Memorandum of Understanding and a number of
others expressed the intention to do so in the near future.
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EU approves the MAMA Project |
The approval of
a MedGOOS project (submitted under the EU’s Fifth Framework
Programme) - “The Mediterranean network to Assess and
upgrade Monitoring and forecasting Activity in the region”
(MAMA) - in spring 2001 was indeed a great step forward
as it gave the means to start building MedGOOS concretely
and to start fulfilling its objectives.
MAMA is coordinated by the MedGOOS Chair in Italy with
the assistance of the MedGOOS
Secretariat in Malta.
Three Expressions of
Interest were submitted to the EC prior to the launching
of the VIth Framework Programme. These are:
· MAMA-MIP
concerning a large integrated project targeting to set
up the initial observing system, by strengthening capacities,
incorporating emerging technologies and designing effective
sampling strategies for a permanent operational forecasting
system in the Mediterranean and Black Sea (with extensions
to the Caspian Sea), and providing benefits for tourism,
maritime transport, pollution mitigation, coastal protection,
fisheries and off-shore industries.
· MERSEA-LIP aiming to develop
a European Capacity for operational monitoring and forecasting
on global and regional scales of the ocean physics, biogeochemistry
and ecosystems.
· DATANET which has the objective
to develop a data management infrastructure for present
and future ocean monitoring and forecasting systems in
Europe and the Mediterranean, based on a semi-distributed
model and involving a network of professional archiving
centres linked to a web of organisations in the region.
These three initiatives
are expected to lead the way towards implementing the
initial operational ocean monitoring and forecasting system
in the region.
