Organized by the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation, more than 200 delegates from various Mediterranean countries will meet the following 22^nd November at 6pm at the Albeniz Theatre in Malaga for the inauguration of the IUCN Mediterranean Forum and the celebration of the 10^th anniversary of the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation.

The Director General of IUCN, Julia Maron-Lefèvre, will be accompanied on this occasion by the Ambassador of Principality of Monaco in Spain Mr. Patrick Van Klaveren, the President of the Diputación Provincial of Malaga, Mr. Salvador Pendón Muñoz, the Spanish Ministry of Environment of the Junta de Andalucia, Mr. José Juan Díaz Trillo, the State Secretary of Climate Change from the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs Mrs. Teresa Ribera Rodríguez and the Mayor of Malaga, Mr. Francisco de la Torre Prados, will unite to celebrate the opening of the Forum and develop new alliances and discuss the priorities of the cooperative work programme for the coming years.

The event will be followed by the signing of various cooperation agreements between the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation and several Spanish and Mediterranean institutions at 8:30pm in the Town Hall of Malaga, as well as the presentation of awards for the Photography Competition: Know and Account for Mediterranean Biodiversity, organized to mark the 10^th Anniversary of the IUCN office in Malaga.

The IUCN Mediterranean Forum will continue on the 23^rd and 24^th November at the Malaga Diputación, and will finalize on the 25^th with a visit to the Sierra de las Nieves, Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean.

The framework to establish the basis of progress towards the post- 2010 objectives of conservation and innovation in the environmental cooperation in the Mediterranean, some of the topics that will be covered during the Forum include the development of sustainable tourism, energy networks, conservation of species, climate change, management of marine and land areas and the role of cooperation agencies and Mediterranean conservation foundations. The conclusions of the IUCN Forum in Malaga will be collected in a public statement with the established actions and objectives for conservation of one of the hottest and most threatened places of biodiversity on the planet: the Mediterranean.

Notes for the editors

The complete programme can be viewed here: Programa Foro UICN

For more information and interviews:

Sonsoles San Román, Communications Manager, IUCN-Med, Tel. 952 028430, Mobile: 627719783, sonsoles.sanroman@iucn.org
 

Silvia Casellas, Department of Institutional Relations, IUCN-Med; Tel: 952 028430, Mobile: 620 895485, medpr@iucn.org
 

About IUCN

IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the world find pragmatic solutions to the most pressing environment and development challenges. It supports scientific research, manages field projects all over the world and brings governments, non-government organizations, United Nations agencies, companies and local communities together to develop and implement policy, laws and best practice.
IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental network - a democratic membership union with more than 1,000 government and NGO member organizations, and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries. IUCN’s work is supported by more than 1,000 professional staff in 60 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world. The Union’s headquarters are located in Gland, near Geneva, Switzerland.

www.iucn.org 

About the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation

IUCN-Med´s headquarters are located in the Andalusia Technology Park (Parque Tecnólogico de Andalucía) in Malaga, Spain and has over 170 members in the Mediterranean region, including governments, NGO’s and governmental agencies. Their mission is to influence, encourage and help Mediterranean societies to conserve and sustainably use natural resources of the area and work with IUCN members and other agencies that share the same goals of the organization.

IUCN-Med receives financial support from the Ministry of Environment of the Junta de Andalucia, the Ministry of Environment of Rural and Marine Affairs and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) among others.

www.uicn.org/mediterraneo