During the meeting of the Priority Action Programme/Regional Activity Centre (PAP/RAC) National Focal Points, the results of the PEGASO ICZM stock-take for the Mediterranean were presented in a draft version, including the background, the scope and results. The stock-take results reviewed the formal management structure and institutional arrangements in the coastal zones of each country and the degree of implementation at different levels.

The stock-take findings offers a wealth of data and information on the current state of ICZM in the Mediterranean and the implementation of the ICZM Protocol. The broad pattern that emerges is that there is a substantial level of activity overall although the distribution is uneven both thematically and geographically.

The broad areas which the stocktake suggested presented challenges were:

* Despite the wealth of information and experiences spread across the region, there is a strong need to share knowledge of different ICZM initiatives and approaches. There are successful examples of local actions.
* The responses indicate that Protocol clearly raises a number of new and difficult technical challenges that require further guidance and training.
* Nationals and local strategies to the developing of ICZM programme are still facing major obstacles in many countries and the general level of implementation is low across the region.

Participants at the meeting pointed out several issues, particularly regarding the interpretation of the questions by the reporters, the large amount of information to be synthesized and analyzed, and the need for clarification on some questions.Most of this work has being driven by using questionnaires and interviews to gather the view of the situation in each country. Participants at the meeting revealed the need to improve the approach and the considerable effort to be put into gather the large amount of information to be synthesized and analyzed to have an adequate coastal planning and management.

A last review of the findings was also presented and discussed with PEGASO participants during the VIC02.Taking into account the abundant comments and additional sources of information from both meetings, some step towards building a long term evaluation tool to measure ICZM implementation and preparing the report to be officially adopted by the Conference of Parties to the Barcelona Convention is underway.

The recommendations set up the current framework reporting for coastal management around three main issues:

I. Technical: Online platform/GIS with interactive maps to show implementation of the national strategies for ICZM.

II. Capacity: The opportunity of stakeholders (Mediterranean and Black Sea National Focal Points) to participate and upload their own information through an open access platform.

III. Availability: By involving National stakeholders, also increase their participation and the process transparency and visibility to strengthen ICZM implementation.

This report completes the first stage of analysis on the current coastal management framework in the Mediterranean and calls for another specific round of consultation. A similar process is being conducted in the Black Sea. The PAP/RAC team will forward these findings to UNEP/MAP hoping they provide a way forward to assess next stage of implementation of the ICZM Protocol.