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THE RAMOGE AGREEMENT

Wishing to preserve the Mediterranean and Among its activities, the agreement works to
implement measures to limit marine pollution, encourage responsible mooring management to
Prince Rainier III de Monaco announced his handle the increase in the numbers of pleasure-
desire to establish cooperation between boaters within the RAMOGE area. Indeed, this
France and Italy as early as the 1970s. This increase generates negative impacts on the
initiative became reality on May 10, 1976 with seabed. Intensive, repetitive anchorage in fragile
the signature of the RAMOGE agreement. Its areas leads to the degradation of certain rocky
name combines the first syllables of the names seabeds and Posidonia seagrass or coral beds.
of the three cities that then limited its zone of In the most heavily frequented anchorage zones,
application: Saint-RAphaël to the west, MOnaco, we are already witnessing the destruction of
and GEnoa to the east. marine biological systems.
To meet this challenge, the RAMOGE agreement
This agreement forms part of the Barcelona wished to organize a symposium to allow
Convention and its Mediterranean Action Plan. mooring-area managers of the three countries
In 1981, the original zone of application was to share their experiences and identify the
enlarged to extend from Marseille to La Spezia to techniques and practices most respectful of the
take into account States’ regional administrative marine environment. These exchanges should
structures. facilitate the future implementation of effective
measures to limit negative impacts and enable
The RAMOGE agreement is an instrument to the sustainable management of moorings.
allow the three countries to establish a pilot
zone to combat marine pollution and enable
marine conservation. This Agreement introduces
the notion of sub-regional cooperation and
solidarity on the scientific, technical, legal and
administrative levels. It allows the three States
to jointly determine and carry out actions on
behalf of integrated coastal management.
Since 1993, the agreement has also developed
an operational arm, instituting an intervention
plan common to the three countries in case
of accidental marine pollution, called the
RAMOGEPOL plan. The RAMOGE agreement
also endeavours to sensitize users of the sea
and the general public to responsible behaviour
with regard to biodiversity and the marine
environment.

www.ramoge.org