Forum Mondial de la Mer - Bizerte 2025: Joining Forces for a Blue and Sustainable Future in the Mediterranean
On September 12, 2025, the city of Bizerte, Tunisia, hosted the 8th Forum Mondial de la Mer: co-organized by La Saison Bleue in partnership with BlueMissionMed, the Forum was the first international meeting on the sea dedicated to the Mediterranean after the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) held in Nice last June, and it gathered policymakers, scientists, NGOs, civil society, and private actors to advance a common vision for a resilient Mediterranean.
A Platform for Dialogue Between Shores
The Forum has become a powerful platform amplifying the voices of the southern Mediterranean, fostering dialogue and cooperation across both shores. Building on the momentum of the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in Nice, the Forum tackled urgent challenges such as marine pollution, biodiversity loss, and the need for sustainable financing.
Under the theme “From Nice to Bizerte: How is the Mediterranean Doing?”, this edition offered a critical and collective assessment of the Mediterranean situation. It questioned the concrete consequences of the commitments made in Nice and in the framework of negotiations on the International Treaty against Plastic Pollution.
The Mediterranean, a semi-enclosed sea and one of the most polluted in the world, harbors unique biodiversity now under threat. The Forum gave the floor to the region’s most committed countries, researchers, policymakers, and younger generations, and highlighted the Mediterranean’s potential as a hub of creativity, where local actions can scale up into global models for marine sustainability.
BlueMissionMed and the EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters at the Forefront
Elisabetta Balzi, Senior Advisor at the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, presented the EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030, now halfway through its implementation, and the Forum stood out for the remarkable participation of BlueMissionMed partners, who contributed expertise, insights, and concrete results of the Mediterranean Lighthouse, presented the BlueMissionMed Support Programme and multiple ongoing initiatives of the Basin:
- Rym Benzina, La Saison Bleue
- Fedra Francocci, National Research Council of Italy (CNR) and BlueMissionMed Coordinator
- Irene Alonso, Ecorys
- Giulia Antidormi, SDG4MED
- Ignasi Mateo Rodríguez, MedWaves
- Stéfania Campogianni, WWF Mediterranean
- Francesco Camonita, CPMR
Together, these interventions demonstrated how BlueMissionMed with many other projects and actions are already a driver of Mediterranean cooperation, ensuring that EU Mission Ocean and Waters’ priorities are embedded across governance levels, territories, and sectors.
Key Takeaways from the Bizerte Declaration
The Forum culminated in the adoption of the Déclaration de Bizerte 2025, a forward-looking call to action that first of all underscores how the Mediterranean is facing a multifaceted crisis:
- Biodiversity under threat: fragile ecosystems, invasive species (lionfish, blue crabs, rabbitfish, etc.), and impacts on flora, fauna, and vital resources.
- Multiple pollutions: plastics, heavy metals, chemicals, organic, industrial, agricultural, and noise pollution all degrading water and soil quality.
- Climate change: warming and acidification of waters, sea-level rise, and extreme weather threatening territories and populations.
- Human and social crises: conflicts, especially in Gaza, and the plight of migrants risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean. The sea is both a place of life and death, with peace as a fundamental objective.
- Fishing and socio-economic pressures: overfishing depleting stocks and threatening coastal communities already weakened by inequalities and resource scarcity.
In response, the Declaration calls for moving from words to transformative action, seeing the Mediterranean’s unique biodiversity and cultural heritage as both a responsibility and an opportunity.
Main Commitments Proposed
- Shared and Inclusive Governance
- Strengthen cooperation among states, local authorities, NGOs, businesses, and the scientific community, with a focus on women leaders.
- Network existing initiatives, creating a regional platform for coastal cities and regions, meeting first at the 9ᵗʰ Forum.
- Establish a permanent forum for Mediterranean civil society, gathering NGOs from across the region.
- A Sustainable Blue Economy
- Promote sustainable fishing and combat illegal fishing.
- Reduce pollution at the source through circular economy and integrated waste management.
- Accelerate renewable marine energy transition.
- Invest in ecosystem protection and restoration, aiming for 30% marine protected areas by 2030.
- Manage invasive species.
- Support women-led initiatives in fisheries, sustainable tourism, and renewable marine energy.
- Science, Innovation, and Civil Society for Peace
- Create a One Mediterranean Science Forum to coordinate research, include women scientists, and integrate social/human dimensions.
- Develop nature-based solutions and innovative technologies to fight pollution and invasives.
- Build a digital twin of the Mediterranean, centralizing marine and spatial data for decision-making.
- Launch a Mediterranean Starfish Barometer to track marine system health holistically.
- Create a free-trade zone for plastic treatment in Bizerte, making the city a hub for circular economy and plastic pollution reduction.
- Bold Action Anchored in the European Mediterranean Pact
- Implement EU commitments concretely, aligned with the 2026–2029 programme.
- Strengthen alliances with NGOs through a Mediterranean-wide platform connecting civil and non-state actors.
- Support for Territorial and Sectoral Transitions
- Help local authorities implement pilot projects and sustainable solutions.
- Guide transitions in fishing and tourism towards more sustainable models.
- Foster green jobs and social innovation in coastal territories.
- Improve coastal zone management with GIS tools and climate mobilisation.
- Develop strategies to address drought.
The Declaration serves as both a political and practical commitment to scaling up Mediterranean solutions and ensuring their alignment with EU and UN initiatives.
Charting the Way Forward
The energy and resolve displayed at Bizerte suggest that the Mediterranean is in need more than ever of collective action. The BlueMissionMed community is pivotal in transforming the Declaration’s ambitions into tangible programs: through next-phase HUBs, living labs, cross-country replication, and strengthened monitoring.
As the Forum’s closing message resonated: a blue, sustainable future for the Mediterranean requires us to join forces now, and not just in words, but in coordinated, inclusive, and persistent action.
All photos’ credits: Forum Mondial de la Mer.
