Maritime transport is the backbone of trade and economic development (80% of goods are moved by maritime transportation). Global seaborne trade volume and demand for shipping services have been in constant. With its strategic location, the Mediterranean hosts an important transit lane and trans- shipment activities for international shipping. It is also a busy traffic area due to Mediterranean seaborne traffic (movement between a Mediterranean port and a port outside the Mediterranean), and short sea shipping activities (connecting two Mediterranean

Plan Bleu and LittOcean think-tank studied in detail the organization of the environmental observation system for three countries: Tunisie, Israel and France and drafted a summary entitled “the cartography of building environmental information “. These documents present, at the national level, how environmental information is produced, how institutions are structured and how environmental information sharing is organized.

The Regional Project “Governance and Knowledge Development”, ReGoKo, managed by Plan Bleu of the Mediterranean Action Plan, MAP, funded through a gef grant, was developed to promote the integration of environmental issues into the sectoral and development policies of countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean including Morocco and Tunisia. The project has three components: I. Component 1 – Governance (US$ 1.50 million or 50% of project costs) aims to promote dialogue, coordination, integration, and synergy between local, national