The Partnership will serve as a catalyst in leveraging policy/legal/institutional reforms as well as additional investments for reversing degradation of the Mediterranean Sea Basin, with its coastal habitats and marine living resources. The Strategic Partnership, following the model of the GEF Black Sea Basin Strategic Partnership for Nutrient Reduction, consists of two complementary components: -a Regional Component: “Implementation of agreed actions for the protection of the environmental resources of the Mediterranean Sea and its coastal areas” led by UNEP, and the object of the present proposal, and -a “Partnership Investment Fund for the Mediterranean Sea Large Marine Ecosystem” led by the World Bank and already approved by the GEF Council in August 2006. The Partnership will stimulate and further enhance the implementation at the Mediterranean level of Global Conventions and initiatives such as the CBD, the Stockholm Convention, and GPA, Regional Conventions and instruments such as the Barcelona Convention and the Mediterranean Action Plan as well as the SAPs, NAPs, and POPs NIPs in individual countries. The main objectives of the proposed project (Regional Component) are (i) to ensure, in concert with the World Bank, the overall coordination of the Strategic Partnership; (ii) to facilitate harmonized policy, legal and institutional reforms aimed at reversing degradation trends with focus on land based pollution - particularly nutrients and PCBs, fisheries and coastal habitats, in accordance with priorities agreed by the countries in the SAP MED and SAP BIO and to prepare the ground for the future implementation of the ICZM Protocol; (iii) to promote the regional dissemination and replication of new approaches including those implemented/demonstrated under the Partnership Investment Fund Component (World Bank); (iv) to monitor the progress of the Strategic Partnership as a whole, the effectiveness of the stress reduction measures being promoted, and to establish the harmonized monitoring of the "environmental status" of the Mediterranean Sea; and (v) to contribute to the implementation of the Stockholm NIPs through a harmonised approach to managing PCBs in five of the participating countries that meets the requirements of the Stockholm, Barcelona, and Basel conventions.