The 50th meeting of the RAMOGE Commission will be held on Wednesday, November 22, under the chairmanship of the French delegation, represented by HE Marine de Carné de Trécesson, Ambassador of France to Monaco.
The purpose of the meeting is to make a progress report on the ambitious work programme decided in December 2016 for the years 2017-2018.
The RAMOGE Agreement aims to carry out scientific and operational activities to help protect habitats and species that are emblematic of the RAMOGE area, preserve areas of ecological interest and reduce the threat posed by marine litter, to fight against pollution and to create networks for monitoring the marine environment within the zone.
RAMOGE relies on cooperation between Monaco, Italy and France to find the synergies necessary for the effectiveness of its actions, with an area that extends from La Spezia to Marseille.
Three major activities were organised this year. In April 2017, as part of the Monaco Ocean Week, a symposium on the wise management of anchorages brought together the managers of the anchorage zones by offering them the most respected techniques and management methods.
In September, at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco in association with the Pelagos Agreement, a symposium was held bringing together the municipalities of the PACA region and Liguria to involve them in the problem of marine litter, and to encourage them to integrate in their waste management the notion that all waste left in nature is found sooner or later at sea.
In October, an anti-pollution exercise was held off Hyères in which Italian and Monegasque ships came to lend a hand to the French ships to cope with a fictitious hazardous spill, making it possible to strengthen the coordination between the various human resources and materials.
The RAMOGE Agreement, signed in 1976 and amended in 2003, is the instrument that France, Italy and Monaco have adopted for the coastal zones of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Principality of Monaco and the Ligurian Region. It constitutes a pilot project for integrated coastal management, prevention and the fight against marine pollution.