Proceedings of the Second Mediterranean Symposium on Marine

REPORT ON THE SECOND MEDITERRANEAN
SYMPOSIUM ON MARINE VEGETATION
1. Introduction
The adoption in 1999 by <strong>the</strong> Contracting Parties to <strong>the</strong> Barcelona Convention <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
Action Plan for <strong>the</strong> Conservation <strong>of</strong> Marine Vegetation in <strong>the</strong> <strong>Mediterranean</strong> Sea aimed
at ensuring <strong>the</strong> protection <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> macroscopic marine plant species and plant
assemblages in <strong>the</strong> <strong>Mediterranean</strong> which may be considered as natural monuments, and
preventing <strong>the</strong>ir degradation by maintaining <strong>the</strong>m in a favourable state <strong>of</strong> conservation.
In <strong>the</strong> context <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> said Action Plan, <strong>the</strong> Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected
Areas (RAC/SPA) organised for <strong>the</strong> second time a <strong>Mediterranean</strong> <strong>Symposium</strong> on Marine
Vegetation on 12 and 13 December 2003 in A<strong>the</strong>ns, Greece.
2. Introductions and thanks
ORGANISING COMMITTEE: Souha EL ASMI
Frédéric PLATINI
Panayotis PANAYOTIDIS
Chedly RAIS
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: Naceur BEN MAIZ
Ghazi BITAR
Charles-François BOUDOURESQUE
Giuseppe GIACCONE
Panayotis PANAYOTIDIS
Gérard PERGENT
Chedly RAIS
Rachid SEMROUD
Leonardo TUNESI
The RAC/SPA would like to thank all <strong>the</strong> participants at this <strong>Symposium</strong>, <strong>the</strong> Organising
Committee and <strong>the</strong> Scientific Committee for <strong>the</strong>ir fruitful collaboration, and also thanks
<strong>the</strong> Director <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> NCMR (National Centre for Marine Research) for his warm welcome.
3. Progress <strong>of</strong> work
The <strong>Symposium</strong> started with an opening session, with speeches <strong>of</strong> welcome to <strong>the</strong>
participants made by Mr. Papathanassiou, <strong>the</strong> Director <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> NCMR, and Mr. Civili, from
<strong>the</strong> UNEP/MAP Coordinating Unit.
During this session, Mr. Rais, <strong>the</strong> RAC/SPA Scientific Director, presented <strong>the</strong> Action Plan
for <strong>the</strong> Conservation <strong>of</strong> Marine Vegetation in <strong>the</strong> <strong>Mediterranean</strong> Sea and <strong>the</strong> programme
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Symposium</strong>.
This programme was organised around three sessions which dealt with <strong>the</strong> following
subjects:
ACTES DU DEUXIEME SYMPOSIUM MEDITERRANEEN SUR LA VEGETATION MARINE (ATHENES, 12-13 DECEMBRE 2003)
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