Objectives

• to help to change the current trend of environmental degradation in the region, which continues despite major efforts by all Partners at national and regional levels

• to contribute to the sustainable development of the region, to the protection of Mediterranean environment and to the improvement of the health and the living conditions of the population

• to contribute to the further integration of environmental concerns in all other policies

• to strengthen the coherence and secure synergies with existing multilateral programmes and legal instruments, in particular with the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP), the Barcelona Convention and its related Protocols and with METAP and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) - while respecting the specificity of each forum

• to encourage North/South, South/South and North/South/South cooperation
  

• to contribute to creating new employment opportunities
  

• to ensure that, with the building-up of a Free Trade area, steps are taken from the start to highlight trade and environment issues, and that the respective policies are mutually supportive, paying due respect to the environmental commitments

SMAP sets five priorities for national and donor interventions:

• Integrated Water Management,
• Integrated Waste Management,
• Hot Spots (including polluted areas and threatened biodiversity zones),
• Integrated Coastal Zone Management and
• Combating Desertification.
  

SMAP priority on integrated water management